Assassinating in Blood
by chocorose64
Summary: Rose is part of a team deep inside the EDA, a secret government agency. Dimitri's her new member, but he's Russian, something that scares the hell out of her. He has to get her to like him, and he has to save her life, a lot.
1. Chapter 1

**A/N: Ok, I was't going to start another fanfic yet but I really wanted to put this up…**

**Summary: Rose is part of a team deep inside the EDA, a secret government agency that actually belongs to no one. Dimitri's her new member, but he's Russian, something that scares the hell out of her, there are very few Russian's she isn't afraid of. Rose has a past, something no one knows, but he has to get it out of her, and save her life…several times. **

**Most of the characters you'll know, but I will have to make up a few to fill characters…and Abe isn't Rose's father.**

**Ok, hope you like it!**

The bomb was ticking. My team was behind me, I was in front. My feet pounded on the hard tarmac and a hot sweat began to coat my skin, we weren't going to make it in time, we'd had it. We burst into the restaurant. People were eating, living their lives. Lives I could never have. I scanned the room. Castile ran into the kitchens and Ashford checked the bathrooms. It was nowhere to be seen. Every single civilian in the room had frozen in shock. I sighed, this wasn't good. The General walked up to stand behind me.

"You've screwed up big time Hathaway." He said in my ear.

"If you're going to bug me about how I run my team talk to me _after_ the bomb is diffused, not before." I spun to face him, pointing my gun at his head in the process.

"I'm you're commanding officer." He said looking at the gun.

"Yeah, _behind_ the lines. Here," I spread my arms out, "This is _my_ field." I pointed to myself. "All right, Ashford, get everyone out. Castile, find that damn bomb!" I yelled at everyone. Harley started evacuating.

"Ivashkov!" Ashford shouted across the room, I shivered, every damn time he said that name, anyone said that name, I shivered, I actually had to think of him as Adrian in my head I was so scared, "I thought you were supposed to be good at this. Help. Don't just stand there like the idiot you are." Adrian had been standing in a corner. He glanced at me. I shook my head and he walked over to Ashford. Idiots.

"Found it!" Davis shouted from under one of the tables. I walked over to him. He moved out of the way and I looked under the table. There was a black box taped to the underside of the table. On closer inspection I could see it was definitely a bomb.

I sighed. It was a little late, I was already in trouble, I might as well let it explode, then I wouldn't have to face the Captain.

"All right Zeklos." Another shiver, "Work your magic then." I said standing.

Jesse ran over and inspected the bomb. "Damn it." He muttered.

"What is it?" I asked slowly, attempting to control my temper.

"I've only got one minute."

"Well then hurry up."

"Yes ma'am."

"And while you're at it, shut up!" They all knew I hated being called ma'am, or sir. It was too official for me. The general walked up to me again. I gripped my gun, I wouldn't shoot him but I wanted to. Or maybe I would if he did anything to screw this up anymore than I had.

"Do you run all field operations like this?" He asked quietly. He knew I was pissed, he should have remembered not to piss me off anymore. I didn't run all field operations like this, it was an unusual assignment. Normally my team got the infiltrate big bad thing, bring them in when we have enough on them. Then usually I was the one who killed/executed them. It was how we worked. L.A. had been an unusual mission too, it was exactly the same as the one here, so we were bound to screw up.

"If you want to live till tomorrow I suggest you get out of here, and you know I am _not_ talking about the bomb." I rounded on him. "This is _my_ operation and these are members of _my_ team. We have got every job done that you asked us to do. All right, we screwed up in L.A., it was all over the news, but we still got Kierov's guys where they belong. You coming here and screwing up my operation isn't helping. Maybe _I _should be on probation but my team shouldn't be. They were following my orders. Having an extra person here, who can't even fire a _gun_, reporting back to headquarters, is _not_ helping." I yelled at him. He stared at me.

I turned back to Jesse. "How're you doing?" I asked in his ear, I could tell I was calming down a little, I was sure Jesse could defuse the bomb; I knew that, he was just taking his time as usual.

"I'll get it. But, I still need as many people out of here as possible, just in case."

"Okay," I yelled at everyone, "Ivashkov, Castile, Ashford, Davis, General…whatever your name is, out, now!"

"Oh I'm not leaving." The General said frowning.

"Ashford!" I yelled.

"Got it." He replied dragging the General out by his arm.

"Aren't _you_ leaving?" Jesse asked, his head was still under the table.

"I'm not leaving you on your own. And if you repeat that to anyone I will personally ram a bullet through your skull. How much longer?"

"Twenty seconds. Damn! I'm not going to make it."

"You will or you're dead. And it'll be me killing you, not the bomb."

"Got it!" He shouted jumping back. I was surprised he hadn't hit his head on the table.

"You took your time." I said glaring at him.

"I always like to cut it close." He said grinning.

"Yeah, I noticed." I hit speed-dial on my phone. "I need a cleanup crew. Now."

"Where are you?" Lissa replied from the other end.

"The restaurant."

"All right, I'll send one, but they may take some time as you're fairly far from any bases. You're running us round in circles. You know the Captain's gonna be pissed."

"Yeah I know." I hung up. I had never actually met Lissa, it was part of the rules, but she seemed competent and never exaggerated. So the thing was, if she thought I was in trouble, well, I definitely was.

I grabbed Jesse and pulled him out of the restaurant. He jumped into the back of the van and I got into the passenger seat. Ashford started the van. We drove back to base in silence. Although we had diffused the bomb in time, we had got a load of civilians involved, gone on a wild goose chase through Seattle and I had pointed a gun at the General's head, all in all it wasn't good. We reached the base and I jumped out the van.

The team piled out slowly and Ashford parked. The General was on his phone, no doubt complaining. I got the team into the base and kicked them into the showers. I sighed.

My team were all men, I was the only woman and it didn't help my case. The heads wanted me to be with other women, but I liked my team, and frankly with women I was more likely to become friends with them, and I didn't want that. I couldn't form a relationship with anyone, in my experience, it was too risky. I walked to my room and changed out of my field uniform and into all black leather. I brushed my long dark hair and looked in the mirror. I was a mess. I washed my face and then threw on some black boots. I looked more like a slut then a special agent but that was how I worked.

There was a knock on my door. I opened it. There stood the General.

"Captain Mazur wants to see you. Room four." He said, I couldn't tell what he was thinking from his expression, but, he did look _fairly_ pleased. I sighed and left. I slowly walked to room four. The corridors were black, but clean. At least I would be dealing with my Captain and not some foreign idiot. He had after all got me the job, but that didn't mean he liked me. I opened the door and walked inside. I switched on the computer and set up the video call.

The Captain sat on the other side of his desk looking as severe as ever.

"Hathaway, this is not good. General Alto," _oh, that was his name,_ "has recommended your immediate retraction. I know you can do your job but this is not helping your case. You screwed up in Russia, you screwed up in L.A. and now, you're screwing up in Seattle. The government wants you to be transferred to New York, and well, out of the EDA." He wasn't happy with that decision; I was the top agent in the EDA, no matter how rash I was.

"No! Look, sir, I know I screwed up in L.A., but, Russia was years ago. I paid for that in full. I didn't screw up here; I just…didn't do as good as is humanly possible. I don't want to transfer and I know you don't want me to leave the EDA." I wasn't going to plead, but I also wasn't leaving. The Captain looked at me for a while, he looked annoyed.

"That's why I've got you to stay. On one condition, you either take the new Russian assignment, or you take the newbie."

"What newbie?" I couldn't go back to Russia. The time I had screwed up had instilled a fear in me that I wasn't about to face.

"He's just transferred from the…Russian Military. He's good. Whether he's as good as the rest of your team I can't say. But, you do need another guy, it should be a girl but, we don't have one willing to take an assignment with one other girl who is known as a bitch as their boss, or willing to leave their families now do we? So, what'll it be?"

"I'll take the newbie." I sighed.

"Good, he'll be there tomorrow. Rank of lieutenant. I'll have his file sent to you. Be nice to him. He's had a tough time."

"Sir, you know me. I can't be nice to anyone."

"Hathaway, just try, I know you've had worse than him, but, he left a good life for this, he doesn't deserve your crap."

"

Then don't give him to me." I said smiling.

"Hathaway, don't give me that, you're taking him and you're going to be nice." He said it through gritted teeth, "Mazur out." He signed off.

Fantastic. A newbie. All right, I was supposed to have another member on my team, but I didn't really want one, and I didn't really want another Russian guy. It was starting to irritate me, no, scare me. I hated having to say Russian names every damn day. As long as he didn't get in my way I'd be fine, but, I wasn't too sure _he_ would be. I knew how I would react if he annoyed me, I knew how I would react if I got another crappy assignment, one that wasn't a normal one for me, all the outcomes weren't good for anyone. I walked back to my room and switched on my very modern computer. The newbie's' file popped up. I scanned it. Belikov, Dimitri.

I didn't do first names, he'd soon catch on to that and to several other things. I wasn't sure how he would take how I worked, although I was good, I was different. I didn't run my team like a normal person, tended to run it on yelling, shouting the odd round of beating up, inappropriate suggestions that always fell through, it wasn't like the army. I read through the rest of the file. All complementary. Top grades, age of twenty eight, done some fighting in his time. Hadn't done anything with mobsters though, or been in a team. This was going to be a shock to his system. Going from a frontline soldier to being a member of the EDA. The Everything Dangerous Agency, which no one even knew about. Stupid name though.

Sure there was the CIA, NSA, FBI, but the EDA; that was different. Set up by every government from every country, except maybe two of them, and then free lanced out to each government. Finally a unity between every nation. My group was the deepest, hidden group there was, no outside contact unless it was the assignment, just each other, should have been cool, should have been interesting, should have been intimate, I should have had some quick flings with my team, even though it definitely was illegal, but really, it was a total disaster.

**A/N: Hope you liked it!**

**I LOVE reviews!**

**Chocorose x**


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N: Wow, this has got a great response! Thanks for all the people who have reviewed, favourite and alerted, because of you guys I'm updating sooner than I was going to!**

**Disclaimer: I don't own VA!**

I strode into the main room. The team were sitting round the circular table chatting and laughing. As soon as I walked in silence fell. I sighed.

"Right, we've got a newbie coming tomorrow. Name of Belikov, rank of Lieutenant. He's transferred from the Russian Military. And we're _supposed_ to be nice to him, whatever the hell that means. Now, here's what's going to happen, he'll arrive, Ivashkov, you'll take him here where we'll all be. Then, we'll introduce everyone and give him our proper induction. See if someone other than me can kick Ashford's ass, or if he can kick mine, highly unlikely. And then I'll give him the long and boring interview."

"Couldn't we have got a girl?" Ashford asked sighing.

"Yeah, we want a girl. _You _might not care but we get _no_ interest from you. Us guys have needs." Jesse grinned.

"You _guys_ have needs? You're all a bunch of girls! How, can you have guy needs?" I asked shaking my head.

"Because, we are amazing girls!" Jesse grinned again.

"Oh I'm sure you are. But, you're also useless." I sighed, "So, newbie, o' eight hundred hours. Be there, or don't. But if you're not, you're dead." I left the room.

I walked back to my room and switched on the lights. My room was fairly big, the walls were a slight burgundy colour and there were very thick black curtains on the window. I locked the door and placed my gun on the bedside table. I double checked the windows were shut and locked and then kicked off my shoes. I had to double check inside the wardrobe and under the bed. I was like a little child terrified of monsters, although I was terrified of a human, one who wanted to kill or torture me, just like Kierov. I left the lights on and climbed into the bed. I threw the covers over me and closed my eyes. I spent the night tossing and turning without even dreaming, no sleep arrived and when light crept in from around the curtains I jumped out of the bed. I walked into my bathroom and took a bath. I was the only one who had a bathroom as I was the commanding officer, the guys used a set of showers together. Kind of gross really, good thing there wasn't another woman, well, she would use the female ones by herself but, it still wouldn't be that nice for her. I had seen them and used them in the first few months I had been in the team, then the commanding officer had got himself killed and I had got myself promoted.

When I had finished I drained the bath, dried and got dressed. Again, all leather, but this time it was a dark brown leather jacket. I examined my nails and then the time. It was six, I definitely had enough time. I painted my nails a blood red and relaxed for a little bit. After the day before I decided I deserved it. At half seven, I brushed my hair and put on my boots. My computer beeped. I walked over to it. It was Captain Mazur.

"Sir." I said sitting on the chair.

"New assignment, starts day after tomorrow. You're going to L.A., again, to get one of our agents. Kierov got her yesterday. We need to get him nailed down soon. After what happened to you in Russia he's really been trying to get your team, so be careful."

"I didn't know you cared sir."

"I don't. But you know a lot of our top secret information. I'd hate to see him get his hands on it."

"Sir, couldn't you have given us a normal assignment? Because these are where we screw up." I said sighing, I knew what his reply would be, but I had to try.

"Hathaway, you need to get used to it, Marzur out." He logged off.

I sighed. It could have been worse. I'd get the information by the end of the day and I'd have to get my team to prepare for another assignment. They had been hoping for a break, we'd had about ten in a row, _I_ needed a break as well, but then, I also needed a break from the normal assignments, they did, for me, involve far too much sex.

Sighing, I left the room. I didn't want to break it to the guys. Although we pretended to hate each other there was a mutual respect thing going on. I walked into the main room. Davis and Ashford were there. I walked over to the cupboard in the edge of the room and got a glass of water.

"I shouldn't have skipped breakfast." I muttered taking a sip of water. Then I turned back to them. "Guys, we've got a new assignment. Starts day after tomorrow, we're back in L.A., we've got to rescue some other agent. I'll get the info on it by the end of the day."

They sighed.

"Should've known that would happen." Ashford said, "We screwed up big time, they weren't going to give us a break because of that, or even a normal assignment. Which government?"

"U.S." I said taking a seat.

"The last assignment, that was normal with that arms dealer guy...code name Rocky, did you actually have to sleep with him? He's been known to be all business." Ashford sat.

"I am _not_ talking about it." I said shivering, that hadn't worked out as well as normal, the Captain didn't know about it though. The rest of the guys walked in. Adrian checked in with me and then left to pick up Belikov. I'd discovered it didn't matter how I thought of him, both Belikov and Dimitri were Russian, so both would scare the shit out of me. Ashford told them about the assignment. To an extent Ashford was second in command, but that was really only because he was the best fighter out of the guys, with Castile close behind.

Adrian walked in with Belikov. Adrian sat down and I stood. I looked Belikov up and down. He wore a typical army get up. Dark green combats, dark green vest and a single chain that hung tightly around his neck. He had black hair cropped short, something thayt was regulation, not shaven though, tanned skin, dark brown eyes, a lot of muscle and he was very, _very _tall. I felt short just looking at him, but then, I _was _short. As I looked him up and down he drank in my appearance. Black boots, tight black fitting leather, black cotton sleeveless shirt, dark brown leather jacket, blood red nails and long dark hair, I must have looked a sight.

"Name." I said, although I knew perfectly well what his name was.

"Dimitri." His accent laced the word, I shivered involuntarily. Adrian shot me a worried glance, he was the only one, besides the Captain, who knew everything.

"Surname, don't do first names here."

"Belikov."

"Rank."

"Lieutenant."

"This is Lieutenant Davis, Lieutenant Ivashkov, Lieutenant Zeklos, Lieutenant Castile and Lieutenant Ashford, he's second in command." I pointed to each of them in turn.

"And who are you?" Belikov asked meeting my eyes.

"Your worst nightmare." Adrian said grinning. He was definitely the team clown.

"That's _my_ line Ivashkovc. Besides, I'm _everyone's_ worst nightmare." I said glaring at him.

"Yes, you are." Belikov said. My annoyed gaze flicked to him. "I read your file; the Captain gave it to me." He then said.

"Of course you did. And I read yours." I walked up to him.

"The thing I don't understand." He said, "Six years ago, there's six months where your file just goes blank. Nothing there, why?" He asked. Boy, he wasn't afraid of anything.

"I dropped off the radar." That wasn't true, those six months was the time I spent in Russia. I met his eyes, he didn't believe me.

"You _defected_?" He raised his eyebrows.

"No, I just disappeared. I like to leave it to your imagination. Now, sit." I pointed to a chair.

"She's the dog, you're the new puppy." Ashford said to him.

"I heard that." I said glaring at Ashford.

"That was the point." The guys laughed. Belikov didn't. I sighed and rolled my eyes.

"Ok, so, here's the deal. We get today and tomorrow to regroup, plan, get to know the newbie and day after tomorrow we're going to L.A. I don't know yet whether it's everyone, the Captain failed to tell me." I said sitting down.

"You never answered my question." Belikov said, "Who _exactly_ are you?"

A noise that faintly sounded like uh oh, came out of most of the guys mouths.

"Boys." I said glaring at them. "I'm Special AgentHathaway, you don't need to know anymore."

"Yes, I do. You see, I make it a point to know whose orders I'm following. I'm not following some psychopath." He said leaning back in his chair.

"Oh, you will be following the orders of a psychopath, a psychopath who is not telling you anymore than that." I tapped my fingers on the table. My nails made the sound echo through the dark room.

Belikov sighed. He was sitting next to Ashford and Ashford punched him in the shoulder.

"She really won't tell you anymore. All we know is her first name, and we got that from her file, not from her." Ashford said grinning.

"Yeah, why wouldn't you tell us that? Seriously, Rose isn't an embarrassing name." Adrian said frowning.

"If you really wanted to know then you'd look it up, I'm just not one to offer information, I've kinda had that knocked outta me." I said still tapping the table. "All right then Belikov, let's see what you got." I stood up.

"Finally." Some of the guys said standing up as well. We left the room and walked to the gym. The guys walked into the locker room and changed and I walked into the female locker room. I changed into some practice clothes and put my hair up into a messy ponytail.

I removed my outrageously large hoop earrings and threw them into a locker. I laced up my trainers and walked back into the gym. I wasn't sure if I would end up doing anything considering Beliko would have to beat Ashford to fight me, but, I was being optimistic. If Belikov was any good then I could attempt to look on the bright side of it, but I sucked at that.

I lined the guys up. Worst fighter to best. Kind of mean, but you've gotta be cruel to be kind. I told Belikov to start at Zeklos and work his way up to Ashford. He got one chance, if he failed then that was it. I watched him fight. And he was good. At least the muscle showed something and it wasn't just that he sat in the gym lifting weights, he could actually fight. He got to Ashford. I watched them square off, both giving and receiving blows. It was close. But, Belikov managed to get in a mean punch which caught Ashford off guard; he pressed his advantage and won. I sighed, at least he was good but I couldn't quite be bothered. But then I was sure that the real reason was I was worried he would wound my ego if I lost. I wasn't about to let that happen though.

**A/N: Hope that was all right!**

**I love reviews!**

**Chocorose x**


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N: I seem to be updating this really fast...but I'm not giving up on my other fanfic's, I just think it's better to write what I feel like writing instead of writing other stuff that'll turn out rubbish...**

**Disclaimer: I don't own VA!**

Belikov was good. I'll give him that. I was sure I was going to end up with several bruises. His fist was racing towards my face; I flipped backwards, somehow managing to land on my feet. I grabbed his arm and bent it behind his back and kept on pulling until he bent over. I pushed him down and rested my foot on his back keeping him down. I kept his arm up high. He pulled out of it and tackled me to the floor. I ended up on top. He was on his front with his cheek pressed against the floor. I bent his arm round his back again and this time kept him pressed down with my bodyweight.

Breathing hard I whispered in his ear, "You lost. But, not as badly as some. Nice one." I jumped off him. And for the first time ever held my hand out to help someone up. He took it.

"Oh man, Ashford, you've soo lost your title." Castile said punching Ashford.

"Oh, you're _so_ dead." Ashford jumped him.

"Guys! That's enough. You really_ are_ a group of girls. Belikov, you may have impressed me with your fighting, but, I don't know_ if_ you're actually any good. We'd better find out whether you can make it here or whether you just _think_ you can because you past your tests!" I said.

"Oh, you're in for it." Jesse said, "She didn't want you here to begin with, and now you've wounded her enormously large ego, she is going to rip you to pieces."

"Zeklos, shut up!" I walked back into the locker room and changed.

Then I walked back into the gym. The guys were all beating each other up. Typical. I pulled Belikov out of the room by his shirt and down to the conference room. I sat him on the chair in front of the desk and took my seat on the other side. I propped my feet up on the desk and looked at him.

"So, you can fight. But, what else can you do?" I asked picking at my nails.

"Stuff."

I raised my eyebrows. "_Stuff_, could you narrow that down at all?"

"Not really." He said meeting my eyes. I stared him down. Eventually he dropped his gaze to the floor. I waited for him to talk.

"I don't really do much else, other than medical training. I've fought all my life. What about you, what can you do?"

"I told you, I don't do this sort of thing."

"What, talking? You do so much talking, but you never actually _say_ anything." He said sitting up.

"Drop it." I said putting my feet back under the desk where they were supposed to be.

"All right, I'm sorry." He put his hands in the air.

"How did your previous assignments go?" I asked.

I asked him questions for hours. How he felt about leaving his friends and family forever, any hidden hobbies, talents, favourite food, films, every question that wouldn't seem important for his file, but that mattered if he was going to be part of the team. By the end of it I was satisfied it could work, as much as I didn't want it to.

"All right, welcome to the team." I stretched my hand out across the desk. He shook it. We left the room. The guys were still training in the gym.

"Guys, he passed. He's the new member of the team. Now, whose turn is it to cook?" I said walking into the gym. Everyone, but Jesse, pointed at Jesse.

"All right then Zeklos, go and get lunch started. I skipped breakfast so it'd better be good."

Jesse left looking annoyed.

"Ok, Ivashkov, weights, Davis, laps, Ashford and Castile, training and Belikov, you got me." The guys split off into groups. "I gotta change first." I said to Belikov before leaving. I changed back into the practice clothes I had worn before.

I walked back into the gym. Belikov was waiting, leaning against the wall, if it wasn't for the fact I wouldn't let myself get into a relationship and that I didn't like him, I probably would have said he was hot. I walked over to him.

"So, how do you normally train?" I asked quietly.

"Varies."

"On?" I was annoyed; he wouldn't give me a straight answer.

"Where I am, the mood I'm in, that sort of thing."

I looked at him and sighed. "If you're not careful I am going to kick your ass to hell."

"I thought you were going to rip me to pieces earlier as well. That never happened, you really are the classic example of all bark and no bite."

"All right, that's it!" I punched him.

Belikov fought back. This match wasn't to see what he had; it was fuelled by anger, mostly mine, making it all the more deadly. He pinned me down on the floor.

"You have anger management issues." He said breathing hard.

"Don't I know it." I kicked him off me and he flipped in the air landing on his feet. I jumped up.

In the end, somehow, I won. But it wasn't without a price. I was aching all over and my heart was racing. My head was pounding and I felt dizzy. I was on top of him with my hands on his chest holding him down and my face was inches from his. My mind started to wonder. I wouldn't let that happen. I hastily got off him. This time he got up without my helping hand, possibly because I didn't offer it.

I took Belikov over to the punch bag.

"You hit, I'll hold. Then we'll swap." I said. He nodded and I took a hold of it. He punched. And when he punched, he punched hard. My already bruised body was starting to complain, I wasn't used to actually having to use my skills. Belikov stopped.

"You want to swap?" He asked quietly.

"All right." I said letting go of the bag. He threw me the gloves and we swapped places. We ended up going on like that, occasionally swapping, and by the time Zeklos came back in we were both coated in sweat.

"Lunch is ready." Zeklos said. I walked into the locker room and changed. The guys had left, Ashford had stayed putting a few things away.

"Aren't you going to eat?" I asked him.

"In a minute. How's your first impression?"

"Of Belikov?"

"No, of the punch bag. Of course of Belikov!"

"He seems all right, he can fight, but he admitted that he can't do much else. Looks like we've got another you."

"Well, he's not American and he's not as awesome, so, we haven't got another me. Besides, he has a weird name doesn't have as cool a name." Ashford said grinning.

"You're so full of yourself, I'm leaving now, if I talk to you anymore I may explode." I said leaving the gym and walking into the food hall.

Zeklos handed me a plate with sandwiches on it.

"Gee Zeklos, don't waste your imagination on lunch, please." I said.

"My mother was a cook, I never had to learn. Sandwiches are the extent of my cooking skills. Leave me alone." He said handing me a drink.

"I know that you idiot, I've worked with you for six years." I walked over to the table. The guys moved up and I ended up sitting between Davis and Belikov.

"Have you got the assignment yet?" Adrian asked between bites.

"I don't know, I haven't checked." I admitted eating.

"Do you think we'll all be going?"

"I don't know that either. I left my psychic hat in my room." I said annoyed.

"Sorry," Adrian said looking sheepish.

"No, I overreacted, no sleep last night. Makes me grouchy."

"More than normal? Is that even possible?" Davis asked.

"Obviously, otherwise I'd be normal today."

"Hathaway, you never are normal." Davis said grinning.

"Shut up Davis." I said drinking some water. They laughed. I glanced at Belikov, he wasn't laughing, _did he ever laugh? _

I sighed and finished my lunch.

"I'll go and check now then shall I?" I said standing.

"Yes, you should." Ashford said taking my seat.

"Especially because I now have no chair." I left.

I walked to my room and switched on the computer. The assignment popped up.

I opened it. We had to rescue a Lieutenant called Hannah Reyan. First we had to check the crime scene for clues. Clues! Didn't they know we were more like the army than the FBI? Everyone was going. We'd split up in two vans and go round different ways. We'd take a break in the middle of the journey and there were two safe houses listed. One for each van. We'd spend the night there and then go the rest of the way to L.A., we were staying in the same place we stayed in when we screwed up, fantastic. There was the address of the crime scene and the witness accounts from her team. Why couldn't they look for her?

I took a quick cold shower. After training I was hot and sticky and a bath would take too long. When I was done I got dressed and blow-dried my hair. Then I went to tell the guys what was happening, I wasn't sure if they would agree with me, but _I _thought it was a shit assignment.

**A/N: So...how was that? There will be more interaction soon!**

**Please review!**

**Chocorose x**


	4. Chapter 4

**A/N: Thanks to everyone who reviewed!**

**Disclaimer: I don't own VA!**

I split the guys into two teams. Ashford was a team leader and so was I. Castile, Davis, Adrian and Ashford were a team. And then Harley, Jesse and Belikov were in my team. I wanted to keep an eye on Belikov, I couldn't trust him yet. I really should have kept Adrian with me, but I didn't. Ashford took his team off to train or do whatever they do and I took my team to the main room.

"Ok, right, Harley, you're the science nerd, Jesse, you're the, well, the useless one, Belikov, can you drive...fast?" I said sitting down.

"Sort of."

"Oh, for God's sake! Just give me a straight answer!"

Belikov just smirked and leaned back in his chair.

"I guess you can't." I sighed, "Right, you're driving, whether you can or not. Harley, Jesse, you'll be in the back of the van and I'll be in the passenger seat. Next thing, rooms, there are only two rooms in the safe house. So, who wants to share with who?"

"Oh I'm sharing with Harley!" Jesse practically shouted. I rolled my eyes; it was getting interesting, Jesse had never shared with me and always got awkward when we had to work together, one day I was going to find out why.

"Belikov, you all right sharing with me?" I asked, actually wanting to say there was no way I was sharing with him, not that I had a choice in the matter.

"I don't really care." He said, his smirk had faded; he wanted to say the same as me. I sighed.

"All right, go and...do whatever you want to do." I stood and left.

I walked back to my room. I walked into the room and locked the door behind me. I walked to my wardrobe and got out my bag, I started to pack. There was a knock on the door. I unlocked and opened it. It was Belikov. I reluctantly let him inside.

"What is it?" I asked as he shut the door behind him.

"I know...I know I'm being really annoying."

"That's why you're here, to apologize? Why do I doubt that?" I said laughing.

"That isn't the only reason why I'm here. What happened to you?" He lowered his voice.

"What the hell are you talking about?" I said absentmindedly scratching at the scar on the back of my neck. He took a step towards me.

"I'm talking about that." He pointed at my hand. I dropped it back to my side.

"You have so many scars, not just physically. You're so angry all the time, why?"

"It doesn't matter." I said turning away.

"Yes, it does." He said.

"It's not really any of your business, I'm not telling you, so give up now." There was no way I was talking about it.

"Fine." But I could tell from his tone of voice that it wasn't fine, "What am I supposed to call you exactly? You don't want to be called sir, or ma'am and yet you fail to tell us what you_ want_ to be called."

"Did you just come here to piss me off? 'Cos it's working." I span round and faced him.

"That's not what I meant."

"Yes, it was! You know that. Just, unless you have something useful to say don't say it and just leave." I couldn't quite take much more. He was getting too close to things I didn't want to talk about. He sighed.

"My question was perfectly all right. And I meant it, what are we supposed to call you?"

"What do I call you?"

"Belikov."

"Which is?"

"My surname."

"So, as I don't like seeming to be official, what would I want you to call me?"

"Your surname?"

"Why was that so hard to work out?" I muttered turning away again. I heard him leave the room.

I kicked the bed with my foot. I closed my eyes and tried to stop the tears from falling, the tears that I had tried to hide ever since Russia. It wasn't like I had anything against Russians in general, it was just Kierov and what he had done to me while I was in Russia. Sighing, I continued packing. When I was finished I threw open the door, locked it behind me and left the room. I walked to the weapons storage room. I swiped my card in the door and then opened the door. I walked inside. Belikov was in there. I ignored him. I picked up a couple of guns and went to leave. Belikov caught my arm. I waited for him to speak.

"All right, I'm sorry." He said, he didn't look at me as he spoke. I pulled my arm out of his hold.

"I get it. You want to know about your commanding officer, I would if it was me, but, I can't talk about my past. You just get what's current with me and that's it. My past is private." He nodded in understanding. I left, stuffing the guns into my belt as I walked.

I walked to the kitchens. I started to make some dinner. I knew I hadn't done it in weeks.

Jesse walked in, "You know it's my turn today." He said.

"Yeah, but, I need something to do, and frankly your cooking _is_ awful." I said putting some chicken in a frying pan.

"You have a point." He said nodding his head slowly. I laughed while chopping.

"Where did you learn to cook?" Jesse asked walking up to me.

"Army training, survival, you just got in here for science, some of us have to learn surviving and fighting. You should try it. But then, you beat Harley in fighting so...maybe I shouldn't be so hard on you."

"No, you should be. I'm utterly useless." He said sighing. I laughed again.

"So, what do you think of Belikov?" He then said.

"He's irritating. And nosey. I'm sure it was fine when he was in the army but here, it is not so good. I can hardly stand him. He has to know everything, but, I think he doesn't exactly mean it to annoy me, or maybe he does, I don't know." I said throwing vegetables into the pan.

"He'll learn. If Ashford can have gone from being on the streets to the top member of the team he is, then Belikov can clean up his act." Jesse said grabbing a glass of water.

"You're probably right." I sighed. "Tell them dinner will be ready in ten minutes."

"Yes sir."

"Get out before I hit you." I said through clenched teeth. Jesse laughed and raced out the room.

I put the spices on the food and got a few bottles of beer out the fridge. That was all they wanted to drink when it came to dinner. They were completely useless. If we went somewhere that didn't have beer they would probably die. For the first time in a while I got myself a beer, I tended not to drink it as on my normal assignments I got more then enough wine or champagne, I tried to avoid alcohol when I could as it wasn't good to have too much. But, I could do with the beer, just as long as I didn't get drunk. I served the food up onto the plates and then sent them down the tube to the food hall, it was a good invention, I didn't know how it worked or whose idea it was but it didn't really matter. I washed my hands and walked to the food hall myself. The guys were all there looking a little bored.

"What are you waiting for? Help yourselves." I said pointing to the food and drinks. They walked over to them laughing.

This time I ended up sitting between Ashford and Castile. Much better.

"So, this girl we're going to go and rescue, how grateful do you think she'll be?" Jesse asked.

"Not grateful enough for what you want Zeklos." I said shaking my head.

"You never know." Jesse said rather condescendingly.

"Zeklos, no one would want to do that with you. Whether they were grateful or not." Davis said.

"That's true." I said, "I certainly wouldn't."

"Ahh, but, you're not really a prime example. Go on, tell us, when was the last time you slept with a guy?" Jesse said smiling evilly.

"Probably on an assignment." Harley said.

"I asked _her_ not you." Jesse shook his head.

"No comment." I said drinking some beer.

"No, you _have_ to tell us. You know everything about us and we know nothing about you."

"You've been talking to Belikov." I said to Jesse frowning.

"You bet I have. He has a point." Jesse said.

"Maybe he does. But a point I am not about to listen to again." I glared at Belikov.

He smiled and raised an eyebrow.

"Again?" Jessec asked confused.

"Oh yeah, he came to my room today, acted like he was apologizing, but really he was trying to piss me off."

"Well, it wouldn't be the first time someone wanted to piss you off." Ashford said, "That was what I was trying to do at the start, when I first came. 'Cos you annoyed everyone else and I thought it was about time you got a taste of your own medicine."

"Ok, let's just talk about how much you all hate me. I can see that's what you all want to do. So why not?" I said daring them with my eyes.

"If we did you could probably get us suspended for what we said." Belikov said.

"Ahh, now you're getting it. _This_ is how we work. We take the piss out of each other. And then, when we have to work with each other we shout. That's actually why you're here. It was either this or an assignment I didn't want. You're punishment." I said smiling.

"You didn't tell us that!" Jesse said frowning.

Before I could say anything Belikov said, "What was the assignment? It must have been something you really didn't want as you really don't want me here."

"I'm not going to tell you that much." I said glaring at Belikov.

"You will."

"Oh, that's a threat." Ashford said grinning.

"Hmm, it was. Did you mean it as a threat?" I asked still glaring at Belikov, "Oh, wait, let me guess your answer. _Maybe_."

"That was my answer." He said smiling. I sighed and whacked the table.

"You know, I am beginning to see why you are a suitable punishment, because I can't stand you and I can't get rid of you. I'll have to tell the captain that. But he won't care. All I'm telling you is the assignment wasn't like our usual assignments."

"And what are your usual assignments?" Belikov then asked.

"Well, they tend to involve me putting on a bit of makeup and taking off most of my clothes."

"Why?

I grinned, "I have to...infiltrate, or distract while you lot have all the fun." I drank the rest of my beer.

"That's not true." Jesse said, "You get more fun than we do, you get to do what we all want

but can't get."

"Oh, _you_ want to go pretend to be a prostitute and have sex with a male mobster who sells guns and makes you act like a whore?" I raised my eyebrows.

"If it was a _female_ mobster then yeah." Zeklos grinned.

"You _want_ to be a whore?" My eyebrows travelled higher.

"Sure, it'd be more fun than this shit."

"You chose this job." I finished my dinner.

"Did _you_?" Belikov asked. I turned my head to look at him.

"It's a long story." I stood.

I left, having finished my dinner and not able to stand Belikov anymore. I walked to my room, locked everything and collapsed on the bed. I slept.

**A/N: So...did you like it?**

**Sorry if sometimes the characters aren't quite as you remember them from the books. Because, I'd had this written with my own characters, and then thought it would be a good idea for Rose and Dimitri...**

**I love reviews!**

**Chocorose x**


	5. Chapter 5

**A/N: Thanks for the reviews! I do feel I have to give a couple of shoutouts...**

**Thank you to ****SassYNoles**** for some amazing reviews. Your last one made me smile a lot!**

**Also, thank you to ****Zmeyette ****it's nice to know it's what you wanted lol!**

**But thank you to everyone else who reviewed, I just felt like I had to pick those two out, so also, a thank you to:**

**Twilighternproud ****Rose218125 ****Ellixie ****roseskyangel ****awesome983 ****VampireGirl4EverandEver ****PrincessRedfern****Vampire Academyy ****Nefertiti6591****DBM1710****XxLiz17xX**

**I hope that's everyone...**

**Disclaimer: I don't own VA!**

The next day I walked into the kitchens for breakfast. I raided the fruit bowl and chose an apple. I took a bite and took it with me to the gym.

"Do you ever eat cereal?" Ashford asked when I walked in with my apple.

"No I told you that before." I chucked the core in the bin and walked into the locker room. I changed and walked back into the gym. Ashford was still there.

"Never mind me and cereal, what about you and breakfast?" I walked to a running machine.

"I've already had my breakfast. It was cereal." He said grinning. I sighed and switched on the machine.

I ran through the morning. And then I ran through lunch. I was worked up from the day before and needed to get it out of my system. Just after lunch Belikov walked into the gym. He saw me, and noticed the fact I was coated in sweat. He turned it off, slowly I might add. He threw me a bottle of water. I caught it.

"Since when could you tell me what to do?" I demanded.

"I didn't tell you what to do. I forced you into stopping."

"Same thing. In fact yours is worse."

"I've had medical training, you know that. I could see you couldn't physically take much more. Have you been running since you got up?"

I didn't answer. I just drank the water trying not to hit him.

"Are you going to answer my question or not?" He sounded annoyed.

"You don't give me a _straight_ answer and I don't _give_ you an answer. It's fair."

"Since when were you into fair? That's not how you normally play is it?"

"I don't play. I just win. Except when I'm on an assignment, in which case, play is all I do." I said putting the bottle down.

"Can you still fight after that?" He gestured to the machine.

I looked at him and raised my eyebrows. He sighed.

"Who am I kidding? Of course you can."

We faced off. He threw the first punch. I blocked and countered. But, running all morning hadn't exactly left me on top form. We fought for a while, it was close, but eventually i got him pinned on the groung. That was, I thought I did. Until he rolled. Pinning _me._ Dammit.

"I guess you lose." He said quietly.

"Don't count on it happening again."

"I won't." He grinned, but, he still wouldn't get off of me. "This ever happened before?"

"Once, but not with a member of the EDA."

"That's not in your file." He sounded confused.

"There are a lot of things that aren't in my file."

"I gathered that. What else is missing?"

"Russia." I muttered before kicking him off me sending him flying into a wall.

"If that had been a real fight, I'd have done that. So don't dwell on the fact you won. And if you tell anyone about what I just said..."

"I'm dead. I got the message the first time." He said picking himself up off the floor.

"Good thing you've had medical training. I've sent Davis with Ashford, he's the only other guy who has. And by the looks of it, we're going to be at each other's throats. We'll need someone." I left the room.

Adrian and Ashford were outside. They had watched it, but hadn't heard the conversation. Adrian grinned at me. I looked away.

"So, did Belikov bruise your ego?" Ashford asked.

I didn't even dignify the question with an answer.

"No, seriously. Was that a fluke or is he better than you are?"Ashofrd pressed me for an answer.

"Ashford, drop it." I walked away. I had wanted to punch him, but, I'd learnt a little bit of self restraint over the years, and I was beginning to consider it was time to teach my boys to keep their mouths shut. There was a high chance they'd need it.

I walked away. I slammed the door to my room shut and leant against it. I closed my eyes, trying to calm down. Ashford and Adrian walked past my room. They were talking. I listened in.

"She's been acting weird ever since Belikov turned up." Ashford said.

"Yeah, I know. I think he's getting on her nerves, besides these weird assignments aren't helping, she gets a lot out of them, even if she doesn't realise it..." Adrian said slowly, "And, I think his completely Rus..." He stopped, he was the only one who knew what had happened, at some point he'd gotten it out of me, it was my first year back, and it was the sort of 'anniversary' of the day I'd escaped, and I didn't cope with it very well.

"You think what?" Ashford asked, sounding confused.

"I think he's too nosey for his own good." Adrian said sighing, "He's going to get her to blow."

Ashford laughed.

There was a quiet knock on the door. I took a deep breath, turned round and opened it. It was Belikov. I shut the door on him.

"Let me in." He said through the door.

"No."

"Why not?" I could hear he was smiling.

"Because I'll hit you."

"You don't really care about that, you _know_ I know that. You just can't face me."

I opened the door. He walked inside.

"Why are you here? Shouldn't you be with the guys, celebrating your victory?" I said coldly.

"I wanted to see if you were all right."

"Why would you care?"

"Because if you trip up the whole team goes down with you."

"That's very nice." I turned around and switched on the computer.

"You think everything's about you! If someone doesn't agree with you, you beat them up, and if your annoyed you take it out on everyone else!"

"If I stopped, for one, just one tiny second, to think about me, I would...break down or something! If I thought everything was about me, right now I would be sitting in some luxurious hotel getting pampered! I wouldn't be here! I wouldn't have any of the scars I have! And my friends and family would still be alive!" I yelled at him.

"Your friends and family are dead." He said quietly.

"Yes! Another thing that isn't in my file. Because you see that, you ask how they died. You ask how they died, you get Kierov killed them. You ask why, you get Russia!" I turned away from him again. Tears spilled down my cheeks. Adrian had been right, he had got me to blow.

Belikov stood there. I couldn't see his face but I could bet he was shocked. He placed a hand on my shoulder. I flinched.

"I didn't know." He said quietly.

"Don't. Don't say anything, just go." I whispered.

Belikov left the room and quietly shut the door. I collapsed to my knees on the floor and cried. For the first time in just over six years I properly cried. After about half an hour, maybe more, I stood up and walked to the bathroom. I looked in the mirror. Tears were still falling and I looked awful. I washed my face, when I finished the tears had stopped. I reapplied my makeup and there was a knock on the door. I opened it. It was Ashford.

"Dinner's ready." He said smiling at me.

I smiled back and we walked to the food hall. I was starving.

I sat between Ashford and Belikov. I didn't talk during dinner; I didn't even process what it was let alone who cooked it. When I had finished I hastily left. Realising afterwards that leaving them was giving them the perfect opportunity to talk about me. I banished the thought as I entered my room. I couldn't think about it, I knew they were better than that, didn't I? I locked the door and checked the window. I got into the bed and threw the covers over my head, so all I could see was the dark material. Eventually I slept.

**A/N: I think this chapter kinda just ran you guys round in circles...you do find out what happened to her soon, I promise!**

**Review please!**

**Chocorose x**


	6. AN: REALLY SORRY!

**A/N:**

**Ok guys, I'm afraid it might be a while before my next update, on ALL my fanfics. Last week I couldn't update because I had a show on at school that I was involved in and then I went to a Christening. This week, I may not be able to update as I have checkups at the doctors, I'm looking after a puppy for my friend, and haven't slept for basically the whole of last week. And then, next week I'm going on holiday to Dorset, and the week after I'm on holiday in London. So, it could be a long time. There's a chance I'll get an update this week on some of my fanfics, but I'm not sure. **

**Sorry about this! But there's nothing much I can do! **

**Chocorose x**


	7. Chapter 6

**A/N: I would give all my reviewers a shoutout...but there are too many! So, I managed to get this done, I had a 'craving' to write this one.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own V.A.**

In the morning I woke with a start. I hated dreams, especially nightmares. I changed into my field uniform, brushed my hair and teeth and applied a_ bit_ of makeup. For assignments I didn't wear as much. Then I left the room and walked to the kitchens. Again, I just ate an apple. I drained a glass of water and was leaving when Ashford walked in.

"When do we leave?" He asked. I studied his red hair, he never brushed it, but he had that day. I raised my eyebrows.

He ran a hand through his hair. "What?"

"Since when do you brush your hair?" I asked.

"Since Ivashkov said I looked like an idiot."

"He's not one to talk, have you seen his hair? He actually styles it like that. But Ashford, you look like an idiot whether you brush it or not. But, I'll admit, when you brush it, it makes you look hot."

Ashford dropped the bowl he was holding. It landed on the counter. I laughed.

"Really?" He asked, he sounded hopeful.

"Really." I said smiling, it was true. He was actually good looking. But _I _didn't really like it, I didn't like the red, and I liked my men tall dark and handsome. Not that it really mattered.

"We leave just before Lunch. So we won't have it. We'll just take some stuff on the road." Ashford nodded and I left.

I spent the remainder of the morning checking I had everything. I sent the assignment details to my phone so I had it all with me and sent Ashford the details as well. Just before lunch I picked up my bag, my guns, my knives and my phone. Then I left the room and walked to the kitchens. Sarc had prepared a load of sandwiches and put them all in separate bags. I picked up the one that was labelled with my name. There was only two other bags left so people were obviously ready. I walked outside to where the vans were parked and opened the one my group were taking. I threw my bag into the passenger seat and Harley appeared. He threw his stuff into the back. Everyone else started to file in. Ashford walked over to me.

"So, we're going on separate routes, but we should end up there at the same time right?"

"Yep, that's right." I said. Ashford walked back to his van. Harley and Jesse got in the back of the van and Belikov got in the front. I jumped into my seat.

Belikov started the van.

"I may need some directions." He said to me.

"I'll give you them when you need them." I said. We left. Half way through the journey my phone rang. It was Castile.

"What is it?" I asked a little worried. I had told them only to ring if it was an emergency.

"Kierov attacked." He was out of breath, "We fought them off, but, but, Ashford... Ashford is...he's..."

"Castile! Don't leave me hanging. Tell me, what's wrong?"

"Ashford was shot."

"But he's...he's gonna be all right isn't he?"

"No." His voice cracked on the word. I squeezed my eyes shut.

"Shit." I muttered.

"What is it?" Belikov said glancing at me.

I shook my head at him and turned my attention back to Castile.

"Castile, you're going to be all right you hear me? You're going to get to that safe house, you're going to take charge and lead your team. You're going to be fine. Get a cleanup crew to come and take him, they'll look after him and make sure he's given a proper burial. After this assignment is over we'll mourn him. But think what he'd want. He'd want you to keep going, just get to that safe house. Call me when you get there, all right?" I said.

Even though I was telling him to keep calm I was panicking.

"Yes sir." Castile said. He hung up.

I leant back into my chair and closed my eyes.

"Hathaway, what happened?" Belikov said.

"Stop the van." I said. He pulled up on the side of the road. I turned to the guys in the back.

"The other guys were attacked. They fought them off but...Ashford was shot. He's, he's dead." I took a deep breath but couldn't take the thick silence that had coated the air. I opened the car door and jumped out. I walked along the pavement needing some space.

Belikov jumped out and walked up to me.

"So what, that's it? You just up and leave when something goes wrong?" He yelled at me.

I rounded on him. "No, I just, need some air."

"No. I recognise that look. You don't want to go back. But, they need you. They need you back. They need their leader, they act like they hate you but they rely on you, they need you, _now_. You can't just desert them." He said calming down a little.

"Just, get them to the safe house. I need, I need to stop for a little bit. Otherwise I'll kill someone." I said quietly.

"I won't let you do that." His voice was deadly.

"I'm _ordering_ you lieutenant, you get them there, and then, if you want, come back for me. I won't go far."

"Well, I'm disobeying orders. I'm not going to let you leave them when they need you. You are going to get back in that van and you are going to help them through this, you might not be their best friend, you might hardly work with them, but...they _need _you Hathaway, more than you know." He was losing it again. I stared at him in shock.

"No." I said quietly. But now I was just doing it on principle. He was defying orders so I was going to make it as hard for him as possible. I probably would have gone back but now I was pissed off. I took a step back. With a speed I hadn't prepared myself for, he darted behind me and bent my left arm behind my back. I yelped. It hurt.

"You are going to get back in that van right now." He said harshly in my ear.

"No, I am not doing anything you tell me to do and _you_ are going to get court marshalled for this." I said through clenched teeth.

He pulled harder against my arm. Sending a pain through my shoulder as the muscle resisted.

"Do I have to force you into that van?" His lips brushed my ear as he spoke in it.

"No." I said giving up, I wouldn't report it, then I'd have to explain why it happened and that would get me in trouble, besides, I'd teach him the lesson myself.

Belikov let go of my arm. I rubbed my shoulder, it was on fire. I stalked back to the van and got in my seat, slamming the door in the process. No one said anything. They had seen what had happened. The silence had turned slightly cold and they looked pale, they were upset but couldn't show it. Soon after I'd got in Belikov got back into the van. We drove the rest of the way in silence, except for when I had to give Hanemay directions. And when I did, I didn't look at him. Eventually we reached the safe house. I jumped out the van and picked up my bag. Making sure the strap rested on my right shoulder as opposed to my left. If I put any weight on my left shoulder it would hurt like hell. I unlocked the door with my key and the guys walked in. It looked more like an abandoned building then a safe house, although it had state of the art security and everything worked. Jesse and Harley took one of the rooms and I walked into the other. Great. One bed. Belikov walked in a couple of seconds after me.

"Oh." He said when he saw the problem. "I'll take the floor," He then said.

"All right." Normally I would have offered otherwise, but not this time. Belikov opened one of the draws and pulled out several pillows and a sheet. He set them out on the floor. I threw my bag on the bed and sighed. I left the room and walked down the stairs to the kitchen. I heated up one of the readymade meals and ate it. Technically it was horrible, but it had all the nutrients in it so I had learnt not to complain.

At varied times all the guys got themselves a meal. Once everyone had eaten I walked back up the stairs and into the room I shared with Belikov. I sat on the bed rubbing my shoulder again. Belikov walked in. I ignored him.

"Shoulder bothering you?" He asked.

"Yeah." I said quietly.

"Do you want me to look at it?"

"Not really."

"It was me wasn't it?" He walked up to me.

"Yep."

"Let me look at it. If you're going to be in pain then it's not worth it." He said meeting my eyes. I shook my head.

"Hathaway, with medical issues, since I've had the training and you haven't, I can order you."

I sighed, he was right and it did hurt, so I pulled off my shirt. He sat behind me on the bed and gently touched my shoulder. It throbbed.

"Tell me when it hurts." He pressed against it. He ran his fingers across my shoulder.

"It hurts _all_ the time." I said frowning.

"It's swollen."

"You don't say."

He ignored what I said, "You need to take better care of yourself. You're covered in bruises."

"They were you as well."

He sighed and ran his fingers down my back, tracing the bruises. I wanted to tell him to back off but bit my lip, if it got to a fight right then he would win, besides, after my normal assignments I was used to being touched by people I didn't want to be touched by, and in places I didn't want to be touched.

"Nice tattoo." He said quietly.

"Huh?" I wasn't sure what he was talking about. He traced the tattoo on my lower back.

"Oh, I got it when I was seventeen. I forgot about it." I said remembering the Celtic pattern I had there.

"What happened?" He sounded a little hesitant.

"What do you mean?" I asked confused.

"Your scars. You're covered in them, there are more of them then bruises and there are a lot of bruises. And_ this _one." He traced the intricate circular pattern that had been burnt into the centre of my back just below my bra strap, "This one looks nasty." He whispered.

"That's 'cos it is nasty." I said quietly. I turned my head to face him.

"Russia." We said together.

"What happened there?" Belikov asked. I dropped my eyes to the floor.

"A lot." I whispered, not wanting to think about it.

That was when he kissed me.

**A/N: Hehe, I'm leaving you with that...**

**Please review!**

**Chocorose x**


	8. Chapter 7

**A/N: Ok, so firstly, I am SO sorry for leaving you with a cliff hanger like that, and for so long. But it was the first week back at school and I cannot tell you how much homework I've got. No idea how I'm gonna make it through the first year!**

**Anyway, please read the A/N at the bottom, that would be at the top but I have a feeling you'll all kill me if I don't shut up now!**

**Disclaimer: I don't own V.A. but hell, the plot of this is mine!**

Maybe _I_ kissed _him_. I wasn't sure. And as soon as our lips met I didn't care. It was different to the kisses I had to give and receive on assignments, I wanted it and it didn't feel completely gross. One of his hands rested on the back of my neck, pushing my face closer to his, while his other hand pressed into the circular scar on my back. He pulled back, just a tiny bit.

And that was honestly a mistake. As it gave me a second, just a second, to think about what I was doing. And so I slapped him.

Surprisingly, he didn't complain. In fact, he just waited for me to explain.

"I can't." I eventually whispered.

"Why not?" He said quietly.

"It's illegal. And...Kierov...he'll..."

"Shh." He placed a finger over my lips. "I can take care of myself." He kissed me again.

"Belikov…that's not the only problem. Maybe you can take care of yourself. But it would be a liability. And that's something I can't afford to have."

"Hath…"

"No." I stood up, "You can't…no, _I _can't let you take that risk. It's my job to keep my team alive. And as you can see I'm doing a shoddy job at it. I'm not planning on deliberately doing something that will very easily get you killed."

He nodded, slowly, like he was thinking at the same time, "I'm not going to force you. But Rose," I felt my eyes narrow but he ignored it, "You're being…ridiculous."

I looked at him for a couple of seconds, refusing to let my emotions get the better of me.

"All right Belikov; here's the deal. I cannot get rid of you. But I can make life very difficult for you. Don't make me do that. I honestly don't want to. But if you keep pissing me off. I'll be forced to."

He drew breath to speak, and for the looks of it, he wanted to argue.

"Look. It's _very _simple Belikov. I said no. That's it. Now give it up."

"I…"

"Oh for God's sake!" I threw my hands up in the air, "I…"

He'd walked over. And that was just a little distracting.

"You?" He prompted, reaching out and knotting his fingers in my hair.

"I…screw it." I stood up, obviously on my tiptoes, and kissed him.

PUT A BIG LINE!

I woke up a little confused. After a few seconds what had happened came rushing back to me. I sat up.

"Crap." I muttered.

"What is it?" Belikov asked sitting up and rubbing my sore shoulder. It felt nice.

"I promised myself I'd never do that again."

"You do it all the time." He remarked.

"But not willingly, not like that. I shouldn't have done it."

"I know. You didn't say that more than once. Now, what do you want to do about this?" He said quietly, "I mean, you're right, it _is_ illegal."

"Keep it quiet. And then, I can try and talk to the Captain. See if there is a way that he can...bend the rules." I said, thinking it through on the spot.

"And if he says no?"

"Then I kick his ass until he says yes." I said smiling. He laughed.

"We need to go." I said standing up and starting to get dressed.

"I know." He got dressed as well.

When we were ready he kissed me one last time and then we left the room. We walked into the kitchen. Jesse and Harley were eating breakfast.

"See," Jesse said punching Harley's arm, "I told you they'd survive."

"No, we didn't. We're both dead." I said dryly as I picked up a banana.

"Do you _only_ eat fruit?" Belikov asked sitting down with a bowl of cereal.

"In the mornings yes, other than that, no." I sat down next to Belikov.

"So, how did you sleep?" Jesse asked sheepishly.

"Like a rock. Apart from the snoring." I nodded at Belikov.

"Hey! I don't snore."

"And how would you know? When was the last time you slept in the same_ room_ as someone else?" I said turning to him.

"A while ago." He said, smiling a little.

"Still no straight answer!" I held my hands up in exasperation. They laughed and I laughed with them.

I finished my banana and left. I walked up to the room and put my things back in the bag. Belikov walked in a few minutes later. He pulled me to him and kissed me. One of his hands slipped under my shirt and pressed against the tattoo on my lower back. When he pulled back he kissed my jaw and then let his lips slide down my neck. I had to gasp for breath. He pulled away a little bit and rested his forehead on mine.

"We shouldn't be doing this." I whispered, not wanting to say it.

"I know." He murmured holding me tighter.

When he pulled back he stepped away from me and packed his bag. I finished packing my bag and put the bedding back in the draws.

We had to leave. So I left, not letting Belikov snag another kiss. I was, in truth, still a little annoyed with him. And I probably would be for a while. I wasn't the kind of girl who didn't hold grudges.

"Still not dead." Jesse said grinning.

"Shut up." I said sighing. We left the building and then got in the van. We drove off.

"Can't you drive?" Belikov asked quietly.

"Yes. And I can drive fast. But, my phone could ring at any moment, making it a little tricky for me to drive." I said.

"Yeah and when you drive, you certainly forget the speed limit and all the other rules." Jesse called from the back of the van.

"It makes it more interesting. Besides, I only drive when we have to get somewhere quick, hence the conveniently forgetting the rules."

"Conveniently forgetting?" Jesse said, "More like completely ignoring."

"Same thing."

"Technically not." Belikov said.

I frowned, "You're English is terrible. That doesn't sound right."

"No." Harley called, "His English is just better than yours."

We all laughed, yes, we all did. Harley, Jesse, Belikov (surprisinlg) _and _me.

The rest of the drive was…quiet. My mind was on Ashford, I couldn't quite believe he was gone. After everything that had happened between us, after how long he'd been around, it didn't seem possible. And I think everyone else was thinking about him as well. When we reached the base in L.A. the rest of the team weren't there yet. I got out the van and opened the door.

And then I noticed something; there was someone inside. I told the guys to stay quiet and to stay behind me. We went in a line, me, Belikov, Jesse and then Harley. I held my gun in my hand as I walked into the first room. When I saw who it was I sighed.

"For God's sake, couldn't you have warned us?" I asked Captain Mazur, it was him and General Alto. The guys behind me relaxed.

"We could have done, but, we weren't sure who was driving." The Captain said.

"All right." I stuffed my gun back into place between my waistband and my back, "Why are you here?" I walked over to them. There were photos spread across the table.

"She was found, dead. I wanted you to look at it." The Captain said.

"Why?" I didn't do dead bodies, not my thing.

"She has a few marks, ones you'll recognise." He handed me a photo. I looked at it, and then

I dropped it.

"No, he wouldn't, would he?" I said quietly, she had a burn on her face, identical to the scar on the centre of my back. The Captain just looked at me. I closed my eyes.

"What is it?" Belikov walked up to me.

"It was Kierov, he killed her. But, he burned her cheek, in the same way as he did to me."

"What are you talking about?" He said, I still hadn't told him everything.

I glanced at the Captain for help.

"They should know." The Captain said. I sighed. I didn't want to tell anyone what had happened. Only the Captain knew, that was why I was so deep inside the EDA. It couldn't be known. I paced the floor.

"Do you have it with you?" I eventually asked him.

"No, but I can get it." The Captain said picking out his phone from his pocket.

"All right. I'll show them it. But, I'm not talking about it. Does it have the other tapes?" If it did I wouldn't show them. I couldn't have my team know who I really was.

"No, don't worry about that." The Captain dialled a number. I left the room and walked up the stairs. I threw open the door to my room and locked it behind me. I did not want my team to see the video, DVD, whatever it was. Kierov had taped everything and then sent it to the EDA. It gone to the government first and the government had sent it to the Captain. He had watched it and so had I. I threw my bag on the bed. There was a knock on the door. I knew who it was.

I took a deep breath and opened it. Belikov stepped inside.

"You need to tell me what happened." He said.

I closed my eyes. How was I supposed to tell him that Kierov kidnapped and tortured me; killed my friends and family and that it was all for information on the EDA that I refused to give?

**A/N: You'll all probably be glad to know that in the next chapter, you'll know what happened to her.**

**Also, there's going to be a sequel, I've got it planned out, so I know that for definite now.**

**Right, a few review replies:**

**To the person who named themselves 'hi' I was just wondering, as a very thick person, did AH stand for adolescent fiction? Haha, I was trying to work it out!**

**To 'Miss I'm Allergic To People' I just wanted to say, I love your profile name, haha!**

**To 'Katyabarnes' haha, if you kill me I won't be able to update. Thanks for the review! It made me smile!**

**And to 'Zmeyette' The Tourist as in the film? Haven't watched it yet so wouldn't know. But if it is the film, I'll go and watch it now! Haha thanks for your review as well!**

**Thank you to everyone who reviewed the last chapter. I wasn't expecting the response if I'm honest! It was actually nice to be getting death threats, it shows you're all hooked! So thank you very much.**

**OK, that's it. Thank you for taking the time to read the A/N too!**

**REVIEW!**

**Chocorose x**


	9. Chapter 8

**A/N: OMG! I am SO sorry for leaving this for so long! I've left everything forever right now. I've had so much school work, been ill, had birthdays, it's been a total nightmare! And I'm STILL ill, and writing this on my sis' birthday, but hey, you lot deserve a chappie!**

**Disclaimer: I don't own V.A. BUT; the plot of this is mine!**

I paced the room.

"You'll find out at the same time as everyone else." I said quietly.

"I'm not waiting that long." He caught my arm and span me round to face him.

"Belikov, I can't. I just, can't."

"You can. All you have to do is tell me what happened."

"I don't _have_ to do anything. I'm your commanding officer, you can't tell me what to do."

"No, but I can ask you, I can hurt you."

"That's a threat lieutenant." I said pulling out of his hold.

"Yes, it is." He took a step towards me. I kept perfectly still when he kissed me.

"I can't." I turned away and stared at the wall.

"Just tell me the basics, like you're reporting to the Captain." He took a hold of my arms but didn't turn me around. I thought for a while.

"It doesn't work like that. I can't just tell you what happened Belikov. Most of it's classified. And you don't have the authorisation until I'm allowed to show you it."

He laughed, "Hathaway, since when have you followed all the rules?" He murmured in my ear.

I sighed, "Six years ago, I went on a mission to Russia with my team, a different one to this one. It was my first, maybe second ever assignment. The team I was in wasn't the best we had, but it was _good. _I can't remember what the assignment was. Kierov killed my team, right in front of me and then kidnapped me. For five months I was tortured for information on the EDA. He killed all my friends and family and showed me how they died; I was forced to watch it on tape.

And then the scar, that was made by a pendant. He'd heat it, then use it to burn. He'd do it every day, which is why it's so deep. After another month I befriended one of the guys who was guarding me. But, he didn't help. At first. After one more month, he helped. He got me out of my bonds, a new set of clothes and a car. I ran, but, I found out he was shot afterwards. I then found out Kierov had not only taped the killing of everyone I knew, he had also taped everything that had happened to me. He sent it to the government, hoping to instil fear in them; all it did was annoy them. The tape was handed over to the Captain, he's seen it and so have I."

I knew I'd skipped out a lot. Things he'd see later. The little details that I couldn't bear to talk about. But also the things that...things that I honestly didn't want to tell him. Things that I just didn't want him knowing, because to be honest, it would make him think much less of me.

"Is that why?" He asked softly, gently turning me round to face him.

"Why what?" I asked confused.

"Why you won't let yourself get close to anyone."

"Yes." I whispered looking at the floor.

Belikov tilted my face up to his. "Why wouldn't you tell anyone?"

"Because I can't talk about it." I said quietly.

"You just did." He said resting his forehead on mine.

"But I can't do it again. I can't face the team once they know."

"Can't, or don't want to?" He asked almost silently. I glanced at the floor.

"Hathaway, don't do this to me, you know you can." He said sighing.

"Don't call me that." I said, before I knew what I was saying.

"What?"

"Let's try out first names and see how it goes."

"Are you sure?" He asked. I looked back up to his eyes.

"Yes, all I have to do is remember your first name."

"Which you have now forgotten."

"Yeah." I smiled.

"Dimitri." He said quietly.

I shuddered a little, "All right, I'll remember that. But I have to speak to the Captain, he'll want my report."

He nodded. I left the room. I walked down the stairs and into the main room.

"Agent Hathaway, how nice of you to join us." General Alto said scathingly. I ignored the quip.

"Sir," I turned to the Captain, "Did you know Lieutenant Ashford is dead?"

"No, I didn't." The Captain raised his eyebrows, "What happened?"

"Kierov and some of his thugs attacked. The others are fine, but Ashford was shot."

"I'm sorry. But you're going to have to keep going." The Captain said.

"I know; that's why I didn't burst into tears when I told you." I picked up another photo.

"Hmm, well, he didn't torture her first, those wounds were in her file already, but, I don't know if the burn was before or after he killed her. She may have given him info if the burn was before. How did she die?"

"Shot through the heart." Belikov said walking in, I still couldn't think of him as Dimitri, although I wasn't sure why.

"That's not...he wouldn't do that generally. He's got someone backing him up, funding maybe. They told him how to do it and what to do with her when they had her, if it was up to Kierov she'd be covered in big wounds, either a funder, or maybe a boss but I doubt the latter."

"Possibly." The Captain said, "We'll look into it. Anything else?"

"Well, maybe. Look at the design on the piece of paper in her pocket. It's of Russian decent...probably. What happened to it?"

"I don't know." The Captain said.

"I do," General Alto walked over to me, "Here." He handed me the piece of paper.

I traced the design, a faint recognition coming over me when I looked at it.

"The knife." I whispered.

"The what?" General Alto sounded annoyed.

"It was a family heirloom. He loved it. That was the design on the handle of the blade. He used it on me most of the time, over and over again. I think it might be his...signature thing."

"Symbol?" Belikov offered.

"Yeah, symbol."

"What do you mean _used_ on you?" General Alto said. I turned to him.

"He tortured me for five months. If you hadn't been so busy trying to get me fired you may have realised there was a reason for my bad...everything." I said slowly.

I flipped over the piece of paper and looked at the writing on the other side. It was Russian, only, it was gibberish.

"This doesn't make any sense. It's a group of letters just jumbled up. He's running us in circles!" I punched the table. "He wants something in particular, but I don't know what."

"Hathaway, you need a break." The Captain said.

"No, I just need the rest of my team, I need to get this damn tape over with and then I'll be fine. It's just the waiting, I can't stand it." I said.

Belikov walked up to me and took the piece of paper out of my hand, he gently squeezed my hand. He studied the pattern.

"I've seen this before. There's a restaurant in London, my parents used to take me there, it's upmarket. But I don't know the name, or the exact place" Belikov said quietly, running his fingers over the paper.

"He might own the restaurant." The Captain said.

"No, Kierov would have a restaurant in Russia, he hates London. Could be his funders sign, not his. Kierov wouldn't leave his sign on things, he's not that stupid. Whoever he's working with wants us to know _just_ who he is." I said.

"I'll get someone on it." In a second the Captain was on the phone with his back to us.

I sighed. Belikov squeezed my shoulder.

"It'll be all right." He said in my ear.

"I know. I'm just trying to remember that." I said quietly. I looked through the rest of the photos, "There isn't anything else." I said, "I'm sure we're missing something."

"Rose, calm down, seriously, you're working too hard, you'll _definitely _miss something." He whispered. I sighed. Then I nodded.

"I'm going to take a shower." I left the room and walked up the stairs. I took a quick shower, but, I found I couldn't stay in there very long. I was too jumpy. I dried and dressed quickly.

Then I walked down the stairs. Castile and the other boys were there.

"Hey guys." I said to them. "How're you doing?"

They shrugged their shoulders. I sighed.

"I've been there already." I said. I walked back into the main room. The Captain, Belikov Jesse and Harley were talking. They looked up at me.

"Has it come yet?" I asked the Captain.

"Yeah." He threw me it. I stared at the disc for a while.

"All right then, where?" I said after taking several deep breaths.

"Down the hall and to the left." The Captain said.

The team and I left the room. On the way we picked up Castile, Davis and Adrian. We entered the room, there was a row of chairs and a T.V. at the front. This place really had everything. I walked to the T.V. and put the disc in it. I started it. Then I walked to the back of the room and leant against the wall. I hoped the boys wouldn't take the piss out of me after this. But honestly, I knew them better than that.

**A/N: Ok, so reviewers:**

**Do'B thank you for your consistently lovely reviews! I love logging on and seeing them.**

**Ellixie Yes, I think this is my better one as well, I enjoy writing it so much more!**

**And LexaBelinkov Here you go! Sorry for the wait!**

**Thank you to everyone who's reviewed! Love you guys and please keep doing it! *hint hint***

**Also, anyone wanna Beta read this? I think it's going all right, but I wouldn't mind the extra security!**

**Chocorose x**


	10. Chapter 9

**A/N: I was going to try and wait for my beta to do this, but I realised by the time I'd written it I was leaving you hanging! So here it is, enjoy!**

**Disclaimer: I DO NOT own VA!**

When the disc reached the torture my legs turned to jelly. Belikov walked up to where I was and stood in front of me. Purposely blocking my view. He rested his hands either side of the wall beside me.

"Are you all right?" He asked quietly.

"Would you be?"

"I guess not, stupid question. Do you want to stay here? You don't have to."

"I have to see this through. If not, I'll feel like an idiot." I whispered.

He nodded and kissed my cheek. Then he sat back down. The guys watched it in silence. I couldn't see any of their faces, I realised that I hadn't trusted them when I could have. They should have known a long time ago. I knew they wouldn't take the piss out of me, I knew they would know not to say anything about it, but I hadn't had the courage to tell them. I closed my eyes, unable to watch anymore. Half way through General Alto walked in and took a seat. I raised my eyebrows slightly confused, but I didn't have the authority to kick him out. I closed my eyes again, I was starting to feel dizzy and watching it made me feel worse. When it was over I opened my eyes.

I walked up to the T.V. and turned it off. I left the room without looking at any of them. I walked into the main room and sat on a chair. The Captain handed me a cup of tea.

"Thanks." I said taking a sip. He smiled.

"I may only be your commanding officer but I know what you need. So, what do you want to talk about? I know you have something to ask me. A rule you want me to...overlook perhaps?"

"How did you...?"

"I'm not an idiot. I saw the way you act around each other. But, do you want me to overlook the rule, or do you want me to get him transferred, I know you don't want to be in a relationship." He said quietly.

"I'd rather you overlooked the rule, sir." I said. I couldn't have him go, not now.

"If you're sure."

"I'm sure."

"All right, I'll have it...altered for you, if I can." The Captain left the room. I finished my tea.

Adrian, Castile and Belikov walked in. I couldn't look at them. I went to leave. Belikov caught my hand.

"They won't bite, they just want to talk to you about what happened, they need to. You should let them." He said quietly. I stood there for a little bit, his hand felt warm on mine. Eventually I nodded. They took me to one of the room. The guys were sitting round a table.

"So, now that everything has been explained, I see why you're so annoying." Jesse said.

"At least I have an excuse, you don't." I sat down.

"True." Jesse grinned. I smiled a little. Belikov sat next to me.

"Was that the six months that were missing in your file?" Davis asked.

"Yes." I said quietly. Belikov took my hand under the table.

"So, did he not include the tapes of your friends and family with it, only your reaction?" Jesse asked, he seemed slightly confused.

"No, he knew that that wouldn't do anything to help him, besides, I wouldn't have let you see that." I said sighing.

"How did he like, kidnap you?" Harley asked, I could tell he had been itching to ask me that, I guessed I had always seemed slightly invincible, for them to know that I had gone through something like that...well, it confused them a little.

I opened my mouth to speak but the Captain walked in.

"Hathaway, Belikov, I need a word with you." He said. Belikov and I stood up and left. The Captain took us back into the room with the T.V. and told us to sit. We did.

The Captain paced the floor.

"I've spoken to my commanding officer. She said that you two can...do whatever it is you do."

"Your commanding officer is a _she_?" I asked incredulous, there weren't very many women in the EDA and having one higher than the Captain just seemed strange.

"Yes, _she_ is. Now, do you have something to say?" He stopped pacing and walked up to me.

I lifted my head to meet his gaze. Taking in his army style clothing and grey hair as I looked up.

"No." I knew what he wanted me to say.

"How about the phrase thank you?" He said raising his eyebrows.

"Oh all right, _thank_ you." I said smiling. He nodded in satisfaction. He walked away and left the room. I stood and so did Belikov. I took a step to him. He held my waist and kissed me. As soon as he touched me a tingle ran through my body. He pulled back to breathe and then kissed me again. I wrapped my arms around his neck and pressed into him.

Belikov pulled back a little bit. His breath washed over my face and I closed my eyes.

"Do you want to tell them?" He asked.

"I...I don't know." I said quietly.

"Think about it, we've got time." He said kissing me again. He kept on kissing me for a while, unable to stop. I pulled back and my eyes flicked to the door, it was open.

"Well, I suppose now it doesn't matter whether I _want_ to tell them or not. They know." I said.

Jesse and Adrian were standing there looking a little...shocked. Belikov turned. Adrian placed a hand over his mouth hiding his smile.

"Well, this is a little awkward." Jesse said.

"I was going to go with hilarious but awkward works." Adrian said laughing. I glared at him.

He slowly stopped laughing. I left the room, walking straight past them and into the kitchen. I grabbed a snack.

Just as I was leaving, Davis walked in. He winked at me. I couldn't meet his eyes.

The captain was waiting for me just outside the kitchen.

"You and your team can go back to base, if you want." He said.

"We'll leave tomorrow; right now we can't really deal with going anywhere."

"You're probably right. You'll get a new assignment at the end of the week. That gives you three days. How did they take the DVD?" He asked.

"I don't know, I haven't really asked them." I said sighing.

"Try and keep them occupied, you let them stop and think about Ashford and they may not make it through this." The Captain said.

"I will, I'll make sure we're out of here by tomorrow afternoon." I said.

"Good." He walked away.

I walked up the stairs and to my room. Belikov walked past me. I pulled him into my room and he shut the door.

"We're leaving to go back to base tomorrow afternoon. We have to split into two teams again. I'm going to go with Castile and Davis. You're going to go with Zeklos and Ivashkov."

Belikov sighed.

"And you're not giving me a choice are you?"

"No." I said.

He closed his eyes.

"All right, fine, I'll do it, on one condition."

"You aren't allowed to give me conditions." I said.

"You'll like this one." He kissed me. One of his hands slid under my shirt, pressing me into him. He lifted me up and laid me down on the bed.

"_This i_s your condition?" I said when he let me breathe.

"Yep." He pulled my shirt off.

"Lock the door." I said quietly. He stood up and locked the door. Then he came back and kissed me.

I noticed that there was a small cross hanging off the chain around his neck. He saw my eyes lingering on it as it hung above my face.

"It was my mothers." He said quietly.

"Oh."

He sighed, "Does it get easier?"

"Does what get easier?"

"Not being able to see them, it's only been a few days and it hurts." He said quietly.

"It gets harder at the start, but eventually, it does get better." I said. He nodded and took my belt off. Then his lips met mine again. When he pulled back I pulled his shirt off.

There was a knock on the door.

"What is it?" I called, not really wanting to move.

"Dinner's ready." Jesse said from the other side of the door.

"I'm not hungry."

"And Belikov? We can't find him." He knew perfectly well where Belikov was.

"He's not hungry either."

"Of course not." Jesse walked away.

I turned my full attention back to Belikov. He had managed to remove most of my clothes without me realising. I smiled and he kissed me. My heart was racing and Hanemay was breathing hard. His lips travelled down my neck and then back up again. He brushed my hair away from my eyes, just that slight touch made my heart race even more.

I eventually fell asleep lying on my side with Belikov holding me to him It was slightly weird, when I slept with a guy in the same bed it tended to be less...nice and I normally would sleep on the opposite end of the bed, never on him.

**A/N: Sooooo...did you like? I'm not convinced it was THE BEST chapter but I think it was ok.**

**Right, individual thank you's – I'll try and do different people every time I update:**

**LexaBelinkov**** – Thank you for leaving a review that really made me want to write!**

**Breebh14 ****– Short and sweet, loved the capital letters!**

**Maya ****– Thank you! **

**Do'B**** – Thank you! I am feeling a lot better now, although I randomly had a dizzy spell this afternoon...I'm glad you're enjoying it! And your comments help me choose what to tweak in my chappies, so thank you!**

**Please review!**

**Chocorose x**


	11. Chapter 10

**A/N: Thanks for the reviews! Yes, I accidentally managed, to put the wrong name at the very end of the last chapter...proving that I need a beta! But I can't seem to contact who said they'd do it, so is there anyone else who would like to?**

**Individuals:**

**Rosepalmita**** thank you for your review, it's always good to have some constructive criticism! Glad to see you're liking it.**

**VALover21**** Lovely to hear it's one of your fav's!**

**But thank you to everyone who reviewed, I'm going to try and pick two reviews every time I update to comment on, and I also try to reply to every review that has a question in it.**

**Disclaimer: I don't actually own VA...**

Belikov woke me up. My phone was ringing.

"Phone." He whispered in my ear. I sighed and answered it.

"Hello?"

"I hope I didn't wake you." A voice I vaguely recognised said from the other end, I faintly detected a Russian accent. "I trust you got my little present?"

"The girl?" I said realising just who it was. Kierov.

"Of course. What did you think?"

"That it was horrible." I said slightly panicking.

"That was the idea." Kierov said sounding annoyingly relaxed. Belikov rolled me over to face him. He mouthed the words _who is it_ to me. I told him. He jumped out of the bed and got dressed. He kissed my cheek and raced out the room.

"Oh, and Rose, don't bother tracking this, it'll get you nowhere."

I sighed, "What do you want?"

"Information, what else?"

"Why would I give it to you?"

"Because if you don't I'll have to come and kidnap you, probably with one of the members of your team." His voice was slick and dangerous, no surprise there.

"You won't touch any of us." I said.

"Oh believe me, I will." He hung up.

I stood there for a few seconds, thinking. But calming myself as well. Eventually, I walked down into the main room.

The Captain glared at me. "Why did you let him go?"

"You wouldn't have tracked it, he had blocked the signal." I said sighing.

Belikov was typing something into one of the computers. I realised then he was looking up the restaurant he had seen the pattern on the paper before.

"What did he want?" He asked without looking up.

"Information. I didn't give it but...something tells me it wasn't just an idle threat."

"What was the threat?" Belikov asked.

"Kidnapping, two of us. Me and someone else."

"All right Hathaway, I want you and Belikov together at all times. You're good apart but together you would be harder to beat." The Captain said.

I just looked at him.

He didn't meet my eyes and turned away, very unusual for him. He knew exactly what I was thinking, what he had just said was very convenient, but also slightly annoying. Belikov laughed.

"Well that puts a stumper in your plans." He said.

"Not really, it improves my plan. You'll come with me, Zeklos and Harley. Davis will go with Ivashkov and Castile." I walked up to him and rested my chin on his shoulder watching the screen.

Belikov wasn't finding anything on the computer. It was as if it didn't actually exist.

"Damn, he hides his tracks well." Belikov muttered.

"I know. And I'm starving."

Belikov turned to me. "Come on then."

We went to get some breakfast. I peeled an orange and then ate it. Belikov didn't eat anything, he just drank a little bit of water.

"Are you...worried about Kierov?" He asked quietly.

"No." I said quickly, too quickly. He raised his eyebrows. I sighed. "Yes." I eventually whispered.

He didn't say anything to that, he just took my hand and pulled me out the kitchen.

I found Harley and told him we were leaving just after lunch, I also told him the teams and asked him to spread it around. He agreed. Belikov took me back to the main room. General Alto was up and about.

"Hathaway, I'm sorry, about how I've been trying to get you fired. I let my personal opinion get in the way." He said when I walked in.

"It's all right; as long as you don't do it again I don't care."

Davis walked in. "Sir," He said walking up to me, "My report." He handed me a piece of paper.

It was unusual for him not to type it, but then we were in unusual circumstances. It told me what had happened when Ashford had been shot. I thanked him and then he went to get breakfast. I pulled Belikov to my room. I didn't want to read it with General Alto and the Captain watching me. I sat on the bed and started to read it. Belikov sat behind me on the bed and crossed his arms over my stomach. I leant back into him and he read it over my shoulder. I was sure he wasn't supposed to but by then I didn't care.

There was a squeaking noise from the window. I froze. I placed the report on the table and picked up my gun. I glanced back at Belikov who nodded, and I slowly stepped towards the window. It smashed before I reached it. A group of men dressed completely in black climbed in. They weren't friendly. I fired and so did Belikov. Unfortunately they were quick. They had me unconscious before I really registered what was going on. My last glimpse was of Belikov being hit over the head before I lost consciousness completely.

A stinging pain in my arms woke me up. I shook my hair out of my eyes and realised my hands were tied together above my head and my feet were chained together by my ankles. I was hanging and couldn't put any weight on my feet. I glanced around the room, it was a mustardy yellow and there were bars along the ceiling. Belikov was unconscious and in the same position as me. My arms were burning and I wasn't sure how much more they could take.

"Belikov." I hissed, "Belikov! Wake up!"

He slowly opened his eyes. He slowly seemed to take in what was going on.

"Oh shit." He muttered, "Well it could be worse."

"How the bloody hell could it be worse?" I yelled at him.

"I _was_ going to say I could be stuck here with Ivashkov, or you could be stuck here with Alto, but, apparently, that wouldn't be true." He snapped.

The door to the room opened before I could say anything. Kierov walked in.

"Oh, and it's worse _now_." I muttered as Kierov walked up to me.

"What did I tell you? I would _have_ to kidnap you and a member of your team." He said.

"I told _you_, six years ago, that I won't talk." I said, attempting, but, easily failing, to calm myself. The fear, that him just being in the room instilled, was pounding through my body, and I could feel a splitting headache coming on.

"Everybody talks, I just have to find your weakness and believe me, I will." He said walking over to Belikovy. Belikov didn't utter a sound; he just waited for Kierov to get his speech over with.

Kierov took his jacket off and removed his tie. He just looked at Belikov. He stared. And then, he walked back to me and picked out the knife from his belt. He twisted it in his hands.

"You remember _this_ don't you?" He waved it in front of my face.

"Of course I do, it's not something easily forgotten." I said automatically cringing away from it. Not that I could actually go very far. He pressed the flat of the blade against my cheek. I closed my eyes as my breathing started to speed up. Only a little, but enough to be noticed I wouldn't admit it but I was terrified. Then he cut into my skin on my neck. I gritted my teeth; determined not to make a sound. He watched the blood flow out of the wound and trickle down my shoulder. He hadn't cut anything that would kill, he very rarely did. And when he did, it was generally to be kind.

I opened my eyes and attempted to ignore the throbbing pain in my neck as Kierov stepped back heading to Belikov. He hit him. Once. Then twice. And then I looked away. I heard him going, but it wasn't something I could watch. I opened my eyes when I heard it stop.

Belikov's lip was bleeding and it looked like he was going to have a nice black eye.

"You know," I said, "there isn't much point in torturing him. He doesn't actually know anything. He only arrived in the EDA a few days ago; he knows jack shit."

Kierov turned to me. "Maybe not, but, then again, it's got nothing to do with Belikov does it? It's you. You don't want to see a member of your team being hurt, unless it is by you of course. So, really, it's just another...kink in your steel." Kierov said.

He picked up his jacket and tie and left the room. I sighed and closed my eyes. The sweat that I'd felt beginning to build up, was now starting to seep through my uniform.

I glanced at Belikov, he didn't look too good either.

"You all right?" I said to him.

"I've been better, but I'm holding up. So what do we do?" He asked, knowing better than to inquire to how I was feeling.

"I don't know."

"Surely you must have an..."

"No. I do not. I've been in this situation before and it took a _very _long time to eventually work my way out. And that was with guards that I could manipulate! Besides, if there was a way out I could see we would have done it by now, but I can't!" I was at the end of my wits.

Belikov didn't say anything for a while, he seemed to have realised I couldn't take anymore. He knew that the past few days hadn't been easy for me and that this was just topping it off, he knew not to push it, if he did, he would easily have ended up dead.

"Is he right?" Belikov then whispered.

"What about?"

"That everyone talks."

"Yes." I whispered closing my eyes, "Everyone talks."

**A/N: Hope you liked it!**

**Please review guys!**

**Chocorose x**


	12. Chapter 11

**A/N: Thank you for my reviews! Loved them!**

**Disclaimer: I don't own V.A!**

I tugged at my bonds trying to find a weakness, I couldn't. I knew if I kept at it for several hours I could get it. But I also knew Kierov wouldn't give me that long a break. It wasn't the sort of thing he'd do. And then he walked back in confirming my suspicions. The next few hours were miserable. Kierov would come in, torture the two of us, mainly me and then give us extremely short breaks. The breaks were spent in silence, we had to conserve our strength and neither one of us had anything encouraging to say. Kierov walked in, he was holding a blowtorch. If he was going to use that on flesh it was…actually kind of gross, for him. But then he pulled out his necklace and took off the pendant. He was going to heat up the pendant like he had before. I started shaking again and the hot sticky sweat turned cold. Ice cold. I watched him heat it up. I tugged harder at my bonds, not that it was any use. I mean, they were starting to give, but not enough. And even if I got out, what could I do in the state I was in? And then Kierov walked over to Belikov and I honestly thought I was going to be sick.

It was my job to protect him, to keep my team safe. As well as make sure they got the job done. And right now, I was doing a very shoddy job of both. Ashford was dead, Belikov was being tortured, and my team wasin pieces. And there I was, tied up and not doing a single thing to help; not that there was very much I could do.

But I had forgotten something. Belikov was very, very good. While I'd been moping; he'd taken matters into his own hands. He was stronger than me, enough so that he'd managed to loosen his bonds enough to get out. It was a bit too fast for me to work out exactly what happened. But somehow or another, Kierov ended up throwing the pendant to get his hands free. And then of course, the pendant grazed me. Then, somehow or another Kierov was out cold on the floor and Belikov had untied me.

I swayed as soon as I hit the floor. Luckily Belikov was on hand to catch me before I fell.

"Are you all right?" he asked gently getting me to stand up right.

"I'm alive," I shrugged.

He smiled a little and started to help me out the room.

"I _can _walk," I muttered.

"Yes. But I'd rather you didn't fall on the floor while attempting it."

I almost laughed but didn't want to risk it, in case it hurt my injury. It was just on the side of my stomach and was really only a minor burn, but it hurt like hell. There were three guards outside the room. Belikov took care of them. He obviously wasn't sure where he was going but in the end we made it out of the building, knocking several people unconscious.

Outside, it appeared we'd been in a warehouse of some kind, but I'd have guessed that just from the inside of the building. Belikov managed to get a van open and hotwire it. It sounded easy, in fact; it _was _easy. Once you were taught it, it was a piece of cake.

Eventually we hit a main road with signposts. We were just outside of L.A. and it would take half an hour to get to base at the least. Belikov stopped off at a pharmacy.

"You need something for your burns," he said.

"And how are you planning on getting that something? You have no money."

"I'll improvise." He kissed me and then got out of the van.

The pain was easing a little. Not much, but enough for me to keep my eyes open. After what seemed like forever Belikov came back with some stuff. I didn't really care about what it was. He lifted up my shirt and smeared some cream over it. It stung.

"Shit!" I shouted.

"Easy, if I don't do this it might heal funny," he said bandaging it up. I leant back into my chair still feeling light headed. He lightly touched my forehead with his hand. My head was throbbing, well, pounding.

"No," I said sarcastically, "I wouldn't have guessed."

"Take these." He handed me some painkillers and a bottle of water. I took them. The water was nice against my parched throat. Once I had had some I gave it back to him. He drank a bit but gave it back to me.

"You need it more than I do," he said.

"All right," I drank the rest, "That was too easy," I said when I had finished the bottle.

"What do you mean?" Belikov sighed; I don't think he really wanted to know.

"It was almost as if he didn't care whether we left or not."

"You worry too much." He ran his fingers slowly down my cheek.

"Maybe, but this damn headache isn't helping." I closed my eyes against the light.

"What's actually wrong with you?" He handed me another bottle of water.

"I have a headache and I feel really hot and dizzy." I drank some of the water.

"I don't know what's wrong. I only had a _bit _of medical training and I almost dropped out."

"Davis would know." I said studying his slightly bruised eye.

"I'll ring him," He picked a phone out of his pocket.

"You stole a phone too?" I asked, my voice raising a couple of pitches.

"Yes. We probably need it more than them, now what's his number?"

I told him. Once he'd dialled it, I passed out.

I woke up in my room in the L.A. base. I felt a sharp pain in my arm.

"Ow!"

"Sorry," Davis wiped a bit of blood off my arm; he was holding a syringe, "Kierov gave you a virus. Probably why he didn't mind you going; he hoped you would give him information in exchange for the antidote. He had coated his blade in it when he cut into your neck. Your temperature might go up and down as our antidote works. Belikov's giving his report to the Captain; they'll come up later. When you feel ready you can be up and about."

It took a couple of seconds for me to work out what he'd said. He'd given me too much information at once and the world was still spinning.

"Thanks," I said quietly.

Davis smiled and left the room.

The Captain and Belikov walked in. Belikov had a faint black eye, but it wasn't as bad as I had expected it to be when I'd first seen it.

"Hathaway, I want your report on my desk for tomorrow morning and I want you and your team out of here tomorrow afternoon." The Captain knew I dind't want sympathy; it wasn't something I ever accepted. It annoyed me.

"Yes sir."

"Get some rest, both of you; you look awful." The Captain left.

Belikov wrapped an arm around my waist and pulled me into him.

"How're you doing?" I asked before he could ask me.

"Better, Davis is amazing."

"Yes, he is." I sighed and stood up "I have to do my report. Which means _you _have to leave."

He chuckled, "You really want to kick me out? Besides, Captains orders; we can't be apart." He whispered in my ear.

"Yeah, 'cos we did _so _well before."

Belikov spun me round and wrapped his arms around my waist, "We're alive aren't we? We didn't talk and we escaped, it may not be winning but we certainly didn't lose."

I nodded slowly. "Maybe. But the Captain'll still count it as screwing up. That's what he did with Russia, even when I escaped with valuable information." I looked down to the ground.

He sighed and rested his forehead on mine. "You worry too much. You need to loosen up a little; it's not good for you."

"And _you _have to stop acting like a psychiatrist." I pulled away and switched on the computer.

I started to type up my report. Belikov read it over my shoulder, I should have told him not to but I actually wasn't interested.

"Your writing's very English," he said in my ear. I shivered as his lips brushed my skin.

"I _am _English...well I was brought up there so...I'll edit it at the end. The Captain knows what I'm talking about, and yet if I use one word that isn't commonly used in America he insists on getting me to rewrite the whole damn thing." I said sighing.

"I can imagine him doing that." Belikov sat back on the bed.

I finished my report and then I heard a faint knock on the door. Sighing I opened it. It was Adrian.

"Dinner is ready," he announced rather dramatically.

"We'll be there in a few minutes." I shut the door.

"We will?" Belikov raised an eyebrow. I smiled and he kissed me.

"Yes, we will," I said when he eventually let me breathe.

"Well, it might be a few hours before I even _think _about letting you go anywhere, and then I have to actually put it into practice so...I think we shouldn't go." He let his lips slide down my neck.

"Belikov..." I started to say.

"Mmm?"

I kissed him, "I'm sorry, but I really have to eat." I stood up.

He laughed and we left the room.

Dinner was…quiet. I wasn't up for anything and the boys were all a little subdued. We left before dessert; I wouldn't have managed anything sweet. In fact, I was surprised I'd managed to eat anything at all.

It was still too easy. Even with the virus Kierov had given me. He _knew _how good the EDA were. It seemed more like it had been to send a message. But not to me, I knew what he was like and so did the Captain. I glanced at Belikov, had _he _been the main target? After all it could be thought he was the weak link. Show him what he could do to me and perhaps Kierov thought he'd be more careful, even go on his side to protect someone. I couldn't honestly think of him doing it to protect me because he knew I'd never allow that, but Belikov had a family; even if he couldn't see them again. Those ties were still fresh. If he'd seen how powerful Kierov was, and then Kierov threatened his family, who knows what Belikov would do?

**A/N: I'm not convinced it was my best chapter...but I'm sure it was al right.**

**Thank you to my Beta Mal15 for making it make a lot more sense than it did!**

**Please review guys!**

**Chocorose x**


	13. AN: I have to apologise :

**A/N: Hey guys, this is going on all of my fanfics, so it's not very specific.**

**Basically, I wanted to apologise for not updating at all recently. But, with Christmas, new Year, English exams, German mocks, things got a little crazy. Also, I have a very busy schedule atm, things are going through the roof, for no reason. I have no exams, nothing's happened...like a family member passing, or anything like that. But I have got a job now, and work Tuesdays and Fridays. Still have school. I have Piano on a Thursday and these wipe out a lot of time. Plus, the homework load's increased.**

**What I'm saying, is updates may be a little rare until July-ish. I'm not saying they won't get done, or that it'll be INCREDIBELY long gaps between them, just that they won't be as frequent as they used to be. Also, on an emotional level I'm having a few issues getting myself to write, I've drafted the next chapter of Assassinating in Blood and began Teacher's Pet. Forever's a Curse I'm debating how to do the next chapter at the moment. **

**Hopefully, over the next few days, perhaps Saturday/Sunday I'll have Assassinating in Blood up. Then, Thursday possibly Teacher's pet. But we'll see what happens.**

**Please don't give up on me! Haha, I'll still be updating, promise!**

**Chocorose x**


	14. Oh dear

**A/N: GOSH...well, I'm not sure where to begin.**

**Since my last A/N a few**** things have happened. **

**1: I gained a neck injury which meant I couldn't type**

**2: I went to Germany on a school trip**

**3: Having to catch up on school work from the trip and taking time off due to the injury - it was the kind of injury that was so bad it made you really ill.**

**ANYWAY, all of my catching up should hopefully be done by next week. I am SO SO SO SO sorry for this massive break. Updates should be coming soooooooon!**


	15. Chapter 12FINALLY

**A/N: Gosh...right, I'm so so sorry for having left this for so long. No injuries now, seeing family done, and all that.**

**Basically...I needed a plan. For my exams. I didn't have one. And therefore I was stressing about them and didn't have time, or the energy, to write.**

**Now, I've decided what I'm doing. Worked out when I'm revising and what I'm revising. **

**My revision plan means that I will update one fanfic every Monday. And if lucky, I'll get another one up at the weekend. **

**Thank you so much for your patience and support!**

My eyes flicked open. I squeezed them shut as soon as they did. The lights were on which meant Belikov had probably decided to get up at some ridiculous time in the morning. Also, from the sounds of it the shower was running. He must have had more energy than I did, ten thousand times more.

I gave myself a few moments, every now and then loosening my eyes so they adjusted to the light. I hated mornings; so much. When I was half awake I slid out of the bed and got dressed. I proceeded to pack my things. Belikov eventually came out of the bathroom fully dressed with slightly damp hair. He was walking slightly funny, but that wasn't surprising. He'd been through a lot. Physically. Besides, I was walking quite dodgy too. The torture had left us sore in all sorts of places. He pulled me towards him and kissed me.

"I have to pack," He said softly pulling back just a little, "which, because of the Captain, means you have to come with me."

Now of course, although he said that it obviously wasn't what he meant when his hold on my waist tightened and he slid his lips down my neck. My heart was racing.

"No no no, _you _have to pack." I protested.

"_And _we need breakfast." He lifted his head up and kissed me again, "Later then, maybe." He cocked his head slightly and looked me up and down, "Although possibly not. I'm not risking you injuring yourself."

I laughed a little and let him pull me out the room. First we got some breakfast. I was pretty sure he'd realised just how hungry I was. But as normal I just got fruit. It was breakfast...there was no way I could have managed anything else.

So then we walked to Belikov's room. He didn't have much to pack, so it was done pretty fast. I picked up my back from my room and then we had to leave the base.

"Teams?" Castile asked.

"Right," I ran a hand over my hair pulling it back from my face, "You, Harley, Davis, Zexlos. Belikov, Ivashkov and me." **(A/N: Please let me know if I've left someone out...otherwise I'm using that listing for reference further on. I've got names mixed up in my head for some reason) **

This time I drove. I wanted to get back as quick as possible. I'd made the executive decision that we weren't stopping overnight this time. Belikov was driving half the night, then Ivashov the other half. I'd take the day shift if we weren't back by then. It was unlikely we'd be back by then.

"I see what they meant." Belikov said at one point.

"What are you talking about?" I asked glancing up from the road.

"You break _all_ the rules when you drive."

I whacked the breaks with my foot as someone got in the way before eyeing him "What do you mean?"

Belikov just smirked. I waited for the woman to cross the road; she was walking at snail speed. But once she had I still didn't carry on. I waited for Belikov to look at me.

"You know what I meant." He eventually said.

"Hmm." I carried on and sped up.

"You're insane." Belikov remarked when I reached ninety along a street.

"I know. I've been told." I smiled.

It was a long afternoon. We stopped off for a quick dinner and then carried on. When night fell I let myself examine Belikov. He looked exhausted. I doubted he'd got any sleep the night before.

"Do you want to swap?" He asked quietly.

"No, it's all right; I don't really want to sleep." That was true.

"I can take over if you want Belikov to sleep." Adrian offered from the back. He had his own ideas as to why; he thought I was going soft on Belikov. He was most likely right.

"No, I'm used to it, don't worry." I said sighing. Belikov closed his eyes.

"Thanks." He said quietly.

"Are you sure you don't want me to drive?"Adrian asked again. He was always like that. If he thought I was being too much. If he thought I was doing too much he'd always try and take it off me.

"Shh, if anyone's going to sleep you're going to have to shut up." I said laughing.

"All right." Adrian sighed, "Don't blame me when we crash."

Belikov chuckled.

After a while I heard a faint snoring sound come from the back. I snickered and forced my eyelids open. They were getting heavy. So I stopped off to get a coffee. I needed it but I really hated the taste. I almost chose tea, but it wasn't enough. Coffee was what really woke me up. What kept me going. But come morning I was struggling. When Belikov woke up he took over to let me sleep. The only thing was; I wasn't sure if I was asleep or just had my eyes closed. Belikov gave me a gently nudge when we reached the base. Still yawning I picked up my bag and left the van

When we got into my room the computer beeped. I turned it on. It was the Captain.

"Is Belikov with you?" He asked quietly.

"Yes." I said sitting down.

"Doesn't make any difference, you've got a new assignment, it's the normal type. I want you to get yourself into the room of Robert...oh Robert something. You won't have heard of him. He's rich and may have been selling guns to Kierov. I'll send you the address. We have someone to get you in, you'll be a...gift. Normal thing, you'll all be going, get Davis to mix you up the cream that covers your scars. While you're distracting him the rest of your team will get in the building and get his backup. I'll send all your team the info and I'll let you choose your outfit, you've been good at it. A plane will pick you up in four hours at the runway. Mazur out." He signed off.

Thank God, a normal assignment.

"Belikov, go and talk to A...Ivashkov and get him to help you with what to bring. On your way stop of at Davis' room, tell him I need the scar covering cream, he'll know what you mean and if you see anyone else tell them we have an assignment." I only just managed to stop myself from saying Ashford...I was going to struggle without him.

"All right." He gave me a swift kiss on the cheek and then left.

I typed the code into the panel on the side of the wall besides my wardrobe. A desk came out from underneath the panel with a touch screen keyboard and another screen on the top. I typed in what sort of outfit I wanted. It came up with several options, I found out what I had used each one for, I didn't want to use one linked to Kierov so that left me two options. Last question, black or red? I went for red. Which left me one option.

I pressed my finger onto the tick that had appeared on the touch screen. The outfit was in front of me in a second. I picked it up along with black leather boots, black underwear and a long black coat that went over the dress. I put it all in my bag with everything else I'd need; makeup and weapons. I set my alarm for three hours time, to give me half an hour to shower and be ready, and slept.

The alarm didn't wake me up. Belikov knocking at my door did. I checked the time, I had given myself another hour to sleep. And that meant I wasn't going to get back to sleep. I threw open the door, sure I was looking like hell.

"Davis wanted me to give you this." He handed me a tube, "It's not what you asked for, but it'll cover your wounds from Kierov's torture."

"Thanks."

"He said he'll give you what you asked for while you're on the plane, and that you should change and get someone to put it on you while you're on the plane like normal, does that make sense?" Belikov didn't know how we normally did things.

"Yes...Belikov, this assignment, well, you may not like me doing it." I said quietly.

"I know, I gathered that from reading the files." He glanced at the floor, "Do you do this kind of thing a lot?"

"Yes, it's the normal type of assignment. It's unusual for me not to."

"How far does it normally go?" His eyes met mine, I couldn't lie.

"Normally you guys get it finished before it gets too heavy but, there has been the odd time when I've been forced to go all the way. Davis gives me a check-up afterwards and so far so good." I sighed, I didn't really want to tell him, "Now, I need to read the files, take a shower and catch up on some sleep, did it say how long the flight was?"

"About six hours, it's in New York."

"All right, I'll sleep four then take two to get ready."

Belikov raised an eyebrow.

"Don't look at me like that! Looking like a prostitute takes a long time!"

"I'm sure it does." Belikov almost snapped and walked away.

I sighed and relaxed for the rest of the hour. Then I took a shower, I let my hair partially dry as I read through the files. It all seemed easy. I knew how to do the threats, etc. Once we brought him in I had to get him to tell me everything, which was where the outfit and pretense came in handy. Once I had a taste of what he was like I dried my hair and picked up my bag. This time we all piled into the one van. Davis was a little late, he had been mixing up my cream. I drove to the runway, obviously speeding. We got onto the plane, there were three cabins in the end of the plane for people to use to sleep, there were more of us than that but I needed a cabin, to get ready and to sleep in. I but my bag inside a cabin before putting my seatbelt on in the main part of the plain, we took off.

People were arguing over who got the cabin first. Belikov had worked out that he wasn't having one, Adrian and Jesse were sharing and so were Davis and Harley. Castile never used them, he hated them. I would let Hanemay use mine as I got ready, there was a 'privacy partition' that I could use when I changed, besides, and I knew I would need his help. As soon as we were stable in the air I walked into the cabin and used the alarm on my watch to be set for four hours time, then I slept.

When my alarm woke me up I yawned and opened the door. Davis was in his cabin. I sighed and opened his door. I woke him up.

"Davis, I need the cream." I said quietly.

He sighed and stood. He rooted through his bag and found it, he threw it at me.

"Get Belikov to do it, he's getting a little jumpy, he knows what you're going to do." He said. I thanked him and left the cabin. I walked over to Belikov; he was half asleep but looked up at me. He waited. "I need your help." I said quietly. He raised an eyebrow but followed me back into the cabin.

When we were inside I locked the door and pulled my shirt off. I gave him the cream.

"I need you, to put it on all my scars." I said to him.

"Who normally does it?"

"I vary it, they've all done it at least twice." I laid on my front on the bed and waited for him.

I heard him sigh but he put the cream on my back. He rubbed it into my skin, letting my skin absorb it so it could work. When he was finished with my back I rolled over and he did my front. Once that was done I gave him the other cream for my cuts, I could have done it myself but, I wanted him to do it. He put it on the burn and the wound on my neck, in a few seconds it looked, and felt if you touched them, that they weren't there. I stood and looked in the mirror; you couldn't see any of my scars.

"If you want you can get some sleep, I have to change, but I may need your help at some point, it's tight." I said to him. He nodded and lied down on the bed. I picked up my bag and walked behind the 'privacy partition'. I changed into the black underwear and put on the red dress. I managed to do it up. It had straps, was extremely short, literally only just covered me up, was slightly too tight and definitely ticked the slut box. I put on the black boots and picked up the hair curlers the Captain had provided in the plane. I plugged them in and sat at the dressing table, either Belikov was ignoring me or he was asleep. I curled my hair and picked up the makeup bag. I put on the mascara, dark eye shadow, a small bit of red lipstick and repainted my nails red, they had got chapped, I couldn't go out like that and taking it off would make my nails look funny.

When I was ready I turned to Belikov. He opened his eyes and sat up.

"Well...now I'm getting jealous of this Robert." His voice was slightly hoarse. I smiled.

"You'll see plenty of this and won't end up dead, _unlike_ him."

"Hmm, but he gets this _now_." Belikov muttered as I walked round the bed to sit on the edge next to him.

I gave the room a mock look around "I don't see any Robert here. Do you?" I teased.

"No." He murmured, his eyes not leaving mine.

"Well then, the accurate way to phrase that would be, Robert gets me in half an hour. _You're _here now."

He smiled and I kissed him.

"Besides, he ends up tied up and most likely tortured so...you really shouldn't be jealous." I paused mid thought, "I could always...practice on you if you want?" I suggested. Honestly not sure if it was a good idea...

"Go for it."

**A/N: Sooooooooooooo? Was it all right? Most likely not worth the wait I know...**

**Please review! I know I don't really deserve them atm, but I think I need some to keep going.**

**Sorry again! Chocorose x**


	16. AN WELL

**A/N: So here's a little update in case you're all wondering where I am.**

**I have loads of exams, GCSE and other coming up, so I'm basically living in a cave revising LOL. **

**I'm going to update as much as I can. I'm aiming for once a week but you can see that hasn't really happened. The exams end around June time I believe. **

**I'm sorry to be leaving you all, AGAIN and thank you so much to all of you who are patient enough to wait while I get my personal things out the way.**

**I have the next chapter of assassinating in blood drafted so that should be up soon. And I know what's happening with Forever's a Curse in the next chapter. Teacher's Pet may take a little longer. Anyway, thank you and sorry!**

**Chocorose x**


	17. Chapter 13

**A/N: Ok, here's the next chapter! We got there eventually haha.**

**Firstly a big thank you to ****Do'B**** for such an understanding review, it's lovely to have your continued support! Also a thank you to the reviewers of the last chapter ****rozalicious678**** and ****SnoodleVamp**** for a pair of great motivating reviews. Then lastly a thank you to any reviewers who are sticking with me while I take these massive breaks.**

**My last exam is one of the last exams of the year it's around the 26****th**** of June but I don't know the exact date. However it means this random updating will continue to happen until then.**

**Ok I'm done boring you, here's the next chapter!**

**Disclaimer: I STILL don't own VA!**

Five minutes before the plane was due to land I pushed myself away from Belikov. I put my lipstick back on again, making it look perfect and then put my coat on, I knew I would be freezing in the dress, especially since I wasn't even wearing tights, and the boots were painful as I wasn't wearing socks. When I turned back to Belikov he had his shirt on. I picked up my bag which then had the clothes I had been wearing and checked my hair, the curls were fine.

We walked back into the main part of the plane. The rest of the team were already there. I gave Davis the two creams he had given me. The guys looked up, I didn't look at any of them, not wanting to see their expressions.

The plane landed and we left. There was a black, sleek looking car and a van by the runway. There was a man in a suit leaning against the car, he walked up to us.

"Special agent Hathaway I presume?" His voice was fairly deep, he had dark hair and I was sure underneath the suit there was a lot of muscles.

"That'd be me." I said stepping forward.

"I've bought guns from Robert so he trusts me and, you're the gift I'm giving him as thanks, or at least, that's the plan. I'm Simon." He held out his hand, I shook it.

"I take it my team's going in the van and we take the car?"

"Yes." He headed towards the car, throwing Belikov a set of keys in the process as Belikov was closest to him.

"Right guys, you know what to do, follow close behind and then do what you normally do. Wait half an hour and then come in." I said to them, about to follow Simon.

"Rose," Belikov said quietly.

I turned to him.

"Be careful." He said sighing. I nodded and followed Simon into the car. He drove.

It was night, Manhattan was lit up, if I hadn't been on an assignment I would have loved to be there. It was beautiful, we drove past the Empire State and Chrysler building to get downtown. Simon seemed to be taking a roundabout route, I think it was so he could get used to the route so when we left he could take it back so we weren't followed. We parked outside a rundown-looking building. He got out of the car and I followed. Simon knocked on the door. I man with a beard, in classic 'criminal' gear opened the door.

"You've got your stuff." He said frowning.

"I know, I brought Robert a gift." Simon gestured to me. The man looked me up and down.

"Take it off." He said. I undid the coat and let it fall to just below my shoulders. He grunted.

"Right, follow me. But, you," he pointed to Simon, "You leave, now."

Simone shrugged and walked back to the car. The man walked inside. I always got nervous round about now. I hated not having any weapons with me and I was never too sure if the man would suspect something or just go with it. Most of the time it was absolutely fine, but the lack of weapons _always _set me on edge.

I did my coat back up and shivered, it was freezing inside the building. It definitely wasn't rundown inside. I was led past a table where a group of guys were playing cards, poker.

"What's _she_?" One of the guys asked.

"She's a gift, for Robert."

"Shame, she has potential for us." The guy smirked.

"We could...keep her for a bit." Another guy said.

"No, she'd tell Robert, that wouldn't be a good idea." The man who was leading me said.

I discovered I had been holding my breath, I started breathing again. The man led me to a set of double doors. Two men looking like bodyguards stood outside. They searched my pockets and realised that I couldn't physically be hiding anything underneath my dress. They told me to wait and one of them went into the room. He stayed in there for a few minutes before coming out, then I was told to go inside. I did.

It was huge. It was a bedroom, with an ensuite bathroom round the corner. The bed was four poster and was the biggest thing I had ever seen. Robert was sitting on his bed holding a glass, it had whisky in it. He studied me for a while. He had blonde hair with a reddish tinge to it and dark brown, almost black, eyes. He was wearing a suit, with no jacket or tie or a ridiculous bowtie. He didn't have muscles, but he was well-built. He gestured for me to take off my coat. I did and I threw it on the floor. He raised his eyebrows and stood. He walked across the room and stood behind me.

"Who sent you?" He had a rough voice, I didn't like it.

"Simon." I said slowly.

"A man of good taste." He said in my ear, his lips brushed my skin, it really wasn't nice.

I smirked, he was ridiculous.

"How long have I got you for?" He asked quietly.

"The night." Possibly longer depending on how long it took him to talk.

"All right." He walked over to the table and poured two glasses of champagne. He handed me one.

I took a small sip of it. It wasn't something I could refuse without it alerting him to something, but I had to make sure I was thinking straight.

"So how do you do it? Do you do whatever I ask? Or do you choose what's happened?"

"Whatever you say, I do." I put my glass on the table.

Robert sat on the bed.

"Then come over here." His voice had turned slick, this was his element.

I crossed the room and stood in front of him. My heart was pounding, I always got slightly nervous, I never knew how far I had to go.

Every guy was different. Some liked the focus on the foreplay, some _hated _the foreplay. Some liked giving exact instructions, some just liked seeing how it happened. Robert was the kind who liked the foreplay, and liked the instructions. And that was always the easiest. I didn't have to think for myself, I didn't have to worry about going too far, I could just relax and do what he said.

Just as my tongue entered his mouth for the hundredth time the door flew open. My head instantly jerked in the direction of the noise. It was Belikov.

"Stand up slowly and step away from the girl." Belikov said pointing his gun at Robert. Robert stood and took three small steps away from the bed.

I found myself breathing again; I knew we had been so close, too close for comfort.

"Put your hands where I can see them." Belikov ordered.

Robert lifted his hands. I noticed him shift his weight towards me a little. I could see his plan before he did it, but I let him, I had a plan of my own. Robert grabbed me and crossed his arm over my chest, holding me to him, I was facing Belikov. Alarm flashed across his face. Robert's hold was too loose. He didn't doubt that I wasn't what I was supposed to be. I shook my head when Belikov moved a little closer.

"I don't take kindly to being held hostage." I muttered throwing my arm back and catching Robert in the face with it.

"Especially when I'm not dressed." I aimed the hit a little better this time, at just the right angle to knock him out.

I walked over to the table and finished my glass of champagne before turning to Belikov.

"You cut it close." I told him.

"His guards were good. And now dead. The rest of the team are cleaning up, I came to get you."

"Fair enough." I said watching Belikov cuff Robert and take him out the room.

I put the dress back on and helped myself to another glass of champagne, now there was no harm in it. Once the glass was empty and I'd slid back into the jacket I left.

Simon was there as well, with his car, we wouldn't all fit in the van. I got in the passenger seat in the car, Simon drove and Belikov sat in the back with an unconscious Robert. Simon drove back to the runway; Harley was driving the van and was just behind us. When we reached the plane I was feeling pretty sick, adrenaline was running through me and I didn't like the car. I quickly got out and Belikov carried Robert onto the plane. The rest of the team piled in. I collapsed on a chair; Belikov wasn't sure what to do with Robert.

"Chain him to a bed in a cabin; he'll fall over in a chair. I'll guard him, and change in the process." I said.

He nodded.

Once we were safely in the air I went into the cabin Robert was in. He was still unconscious.

I changed back into my normal leather outfit but kept the makeup on, it was too much of a hassle to take it off. Once I was finished Robert woke up.

"Ow." He said when he pulled on his chains and by doing that made them dig into his skin.

"It's supposed to do that." I said turning to him.

"Who _are_ you?" He frowned, he remembered me but didn't know who I was.

"Part of an agency."

"Which one?"

"I'm not allowed to tell." I said walking over to him.

"What are you going to do to me?" He asked as I sat on the edge of the bed.

"That depends on whether you talk, on what you say and...what you give me." I added the last bit so he would know what was coming to him.

"We're on a plane, there's four hours to go before we land, then I get my orders and we see just what I can do to you." I said checking my watch.

"Hmm." His expression turned calculating as he took in what I said and my posture. We spent the rest of the flight in silence. I was too busy thinking to make any sort of conversation or threats. Thinking about Belikov's face when he'd walked in on me and Robert. He had been expecting it, but I didn't think he'd been expecting it to hit him in any way. But I could tell that in some way he felt a little betrayed.

When it came to land I took my seat in the main part of the plane leaving Robert alone.

Belikov took my bag for me and I dealt with Robert. He struggled a little but I was definitely stronger than he was. I dragged him into the room we used for interrogations and tied him to a chair.

I spent a while in my room, sleeping to leave Robert to sweat it out for a while.

**A/N: I wish that considering how long I'd left it I could give you a better chapter...but it doesn't feel as good as my usual stuff. It might be me being sill but I dunno...I don't think it's one of my best!**

**Anyway, please review guys! It means a lot!**

**Btw I didn't get time to send this to my beta as I know it would have meant you'd have been waiting for longer, so apologies for any mistakes.**

**Chocorose x**


	18. Chapter 14

**A/N: I bet you guys can't believe it's an update eh? Haha, well, there's not much to say other than thank you to all of my reviewers, means a lot! Especially thank you to ****daughtermidnight**** for leaving reviews to more than one chapter even when beginning now. Also I agree with you, I'm working on trying to put in more visual description. Sorry for aiding in getting you grounded lol...it certainly wasn't my intent when writing this! Haha **

**Disclaimer: WELL...I don't own VA!**

When I woke I changed into a new set of leather clothes and brushed the curls out of my hair. Leather was a staple for me. I'm sure the team assumed it was because I thought it was sexy or something like that. But, the real reason was I just felt more comfortable in it.

Robert had stayed tied up in the chair all night with Adrian guarding him. I wouldn't have been surprised if he'd gone crazy. Adrian could be quite annoying...most of the time.

"Get him some water and get Belikov over here. I need someone to use as a threat." I said to Adrian before going inside.

He looked terrible. He was coated in sweat, his eyes were half closed and I was really quite sure he'd had no sleep at all. His eyes met mine. It was a drawn out movement, something that seemed to take him an awful lot of effort. Which wasn't really surprising.

Belikov walked in after only a couple of seconds. He'd placed his gun in full view and he had put on a bit of a bad boy face, which although was funny, it was useful too. We sat on the chairs behind the desk, opposite Robert.

"I'm sure you know why you're here. But I'll tell you anyway to make sure we're on the same page. We want to know what you sold, to who; for what price and where the exchange was made. Is that do-able or are we going to have to force you into it?" I spoke slowly so he wouldn't miss a word. Robert raised his eyebrows.

"Why would I do that? My customers rely on complete confidentiality and what would I get out of telling you?"

"It's not so much what you'd get out of helping us. It's what you'd prevent. You see we have authorisation to do _whatever_ we want to get you to give us your information. Belikov here can do things to you that you haven't even imagined and there are an awful lot of things I could do. You wouldn't want that. It wouldn't be in the slightest bit pleasant." I lowered my voice, I saw him shiver.

He seemed to think.

"No, I'm not telling you anything, not unless you give me something for helping you." He said eventually.

I shocked my head, "There's always a stubborn one." I turned to Belikov, "Give me a minute, I have a few things I need to say." I said.

Belikov showed reluctance, that wasn't real, but he soon left the room.

I stood and sat on the table in front of Robert. He looked up at me, I could see fear in his eyes but he was doing a good job of hiding it. I placed my foot on the chair between his legs and pushed the chair backwards a little. I slid my foot closer to him but the door opened. I stood up. It was Adrian with a glass of water.

"Do you want some?" I offered Robert the glass once Adrian had left.

"How am I supposed to drink it, I'm tied to a chair with my arms behind the back of the chair?"

"I'll give it to you, but, you don't have to have it." I smiled.

"You drink it first." He said.

"You don't really think I'd poison you_ before_ you give me information?" I raised my eyebrows.

"I'm not taking that chance." He leant back in the chair. I drank some of the water; he was boring me to death.

"I don't want it now, you've touched the glass." He grinned.

I slammed the glass onto the table and sat back down on the edge.

Robert looked up at me. The fear in his eyes had grown.

"Why are you putting yourself through this? Even if, you feel the need to refuse to give me the information, I don't see why you're trying to be cocky. You know I'll get it out of you." I sighed.

"Because I'm not going down without a fight." He dared me with his eyes, "Are you _really_ going to torture me?"

"Well, it's not exactly torture as _such_, that's Bellikov's job." I stood and sat on his lap, with my side facing him. I wrapped an arm around his neck, so I was closer to him. My fingers rested on his neck, feeling his pulse.

"What do _you_ want? Not your boss, _you_." He was getting at what I had been about to say.

"Well, _I_ want the information you have. And then, after that...well, that depends on how badly you'd rather not die." I shifted my weight a little so my face was closer to his.

"So, what you're telling me; is once I give you the information you kill me, unless I give you _exactly_ what you want?"

"Pretty much." I prevented myself from smiling.

"And what is it you want?" He kept his eyes locked on mine.

"You honestly have to ask?" I leant in closer. Since meeting Belikov this sort of thing no longer interested me. A while back I'd have got a kick out of it. But now...it was far too repelling for that.

"All right," he closed his eyes when I eventually leaned away "I'll tell you everything." He was breathing a little too heavy for my liking.

"Good." I stood and stepped away from him. I opened the door. Adrian and Belikov were outside. The pair of them looking slightly anxious.

"He's gonna talk, Belikov I need you to write down what he says, my handwriting's shocking. Come on, he can't wait forever." I pulled Belikov inside.

Belikov went to get paper while I explained a few things to Robert.

"I have no interest in all those war lords you've sold to, or Governments or anything like that. All we need is your information, everything you have, on a man who goes by Kierov."

He nodded, "That's easier."

I paced the floor behind him so he couldn't see me. Belikov took a seat to write.

"Tell us everything." I said pushing his chair closer to the table.

And he did. There didn't seem to be much to tell, he wasn't one to ask questions about his clients. He told us what Kierov had bought, what for and where the exchange had happened. But, he hadn't met the person he was exchanging with and all he had been told was the name Kierov, which honestly did kinda suck, we already knew that. The interesting thing was the exchange site, it wasn't an excluded spot. It was a hotel, The Plaza no less. Kierov definitely had money, or that was what he wanted us to think.

When he was finished Belikov left to type it up and send it to the Captain.

I walked round Robert's chair and stood in front of him.

"I'm going to get some breakfast, then I'll come back and we'll see what we can arrange."

"Do...I'd rather not wait." He said, sounding almost panicky. I bent so my face was level with his and placed my hands on his shoulders.

"I bet you would, but, _I'm_ hungry and we're going by my rules. You're the one tied to a chair." I said quietly before leaving.

Adrian was still outside.

"Swap with someone, you need some sleep yourself, I'm getting breakfast." I said to him.

He nodded, "When d'you kill him?"

"Once the Captain's read the stuff and doesn't have any more questions." I walked to the kitchen. Oddly enough Belikov was in there. He turned to me.

"Is he dead yet?" He asked

"No, I need the order from the Captain first." I got a banana.

"And, how do you kill him?" He walked over to me and wrapped an arm around my waist.

"Knife probably, but, I won't know until he's dead." I leant back into him.

"So, for now we just wait?" he asked in my ear.

"Yes, for now." I finished my apple and turned round.

"How're you feeling?" He knew something was wrong.

"My hips are sore, that's what happens when you let someone hold them too tight." I said sighing. Belikov raised an eyebrow.

"I'm not saying anything about that." He said before kissing me. I wrapped my arms around his neck and he lifted me up by my waist so we were level.

"You still need some sleep, you got less than everyone else and you had an...interesting long night." He said pushing me backwards.

I sighed and nodded.

"Can you...can you come with me?" I asked quietly.

"If you want." He took my hand and we walked back to my room. Once we were inside he shut and locked the door. I put my jacket on the chair and turned the computer on.

"If it beeps, can you wake me up?" I asked Belikov as I got into the bed.

"Sure, was Robert all right?"

"Yeah, he's a little panicky right now but...we'll see." I said watching him sit down on the chair. I closed my eyes and drifted to sleep.

I was woken up when Belikov brushed his fingers down my cheek. I slowly opened my eyes.

"The Captain, computer." He said quietly.

I nodded and took a seat in front of the computer.

"Hathaway, unless you think he's missed something kill him, I have another assignment, it's similar to this one, only, I just want you to bring him in and kill him, he has no info, but he's protected, hence the similarity, I'll send you the details in an hour."

"Do I kill him how I like? For both?"

"Yes. Mazur out." He signed off, knowing I wouldn't have any more questions.

I sighed and pulled my jacket on, I checked my knife was still in my belt and gave Belikov a kiss.

"I'll be back in a few minutes." I walked to the room Robert was in. This time Castile was on guard. He looked up at me.

"Kill?" He asked hopefully, he wanted to sleep.

"Yep." I walked into the room.

Robert had his eyes closed; they flicked open when I walked inside. I shut the door behind me and leant against it, wondering how to do it.

I took a few steps round the table to stand behind him, thinking. Did I want him to know before I did it? Did I want to see his face? That probably wouldn't have been good for my sanity.

"I'm sorry, but orders are orders." I whispered in his ear, before sliding my hand round and slicing his neck. I stood and left, not wanting to look at what I had just done. I opened the door.

"Get someone to clean it up." I said to Castile, my voice slightly hoarse. Belikov was making me soft. He nodded but didn't say a word. I could always count on him to shut up when I needed it.

Belikov was still in my room. Unsurprisingly.

"Done?" he asked as I locked the door.

"Yep." I let him pull me into his arms.

"Are you all right?" he kept his voice quiet like he was afraid to ask the question.

"Yeah, course." I frowned a little.

"You were gone for half an hour. It doesn't take that long to kill someone." He said, still quiet, still gentle.

I had walked slowly, and had tried to put off actually killing Robert, it sounded like a reasonable time.

"Hmm." It was all I could say, I didn't want to go into it.

"Why did this happen so fast? With you?" I asked stepping back, needing another topic.

"Because I had seen the best and worst of you within a few hours, and I wanted it. I don't know why you accepted me so quickly though." Belikov said almost like he'd been thinking about it himself.

I raised my eyebrows.

"Well, _why_ on earth did you want it?" I sat down.

"Because...are you really going to make me say it out loud?" He sighed.

"Yep, that was what I said." I grinned. He sighed again.

"Because, you're beautiful, amazing, hard work, and I love you." He sat on the chair and pulled it round so he was sitting opposite where I was sitting on the bed.

I didn't say anything, I didn't _have_ anything to say to that, nothing would make what he had said make sense. I knew that if he had been in the room while I had been alone with Robert, any of those times, or had seen what I had done, he would want to take it back. I wasn't worth it.

**A/N: Meh...I think it got a bit dull towards the end...but oh well, maybe next time I'll write something better.**

**Now I have a favour to ask my lovely readers...would you all mind horribly if I asked you to check out my other two current fanfictions Teacher's Pet and Forever's a Curse? They seem to be getting a shockingly low number of reviews at the moment and a few more hits, but especially reviews, would honestly work wonders with my motivation. But of course I understand if not considering they're both quite different to this one I think. So obviously they wouldn't be for everyone.**

**Teacher's Pet is a VA fanfic about a new teacher who falls for Eddie. Although there's more to it than that lol.**

**Forever's a Curse is a Twilight fanfic about there being another Cullen who has a wolf imprint on them kind of thing.**

**Anyway, I'd be very grateful if you could check them out!**

**But mostly it'd be amazing if you could review THIS one! Haha**

**Thank you!**

**Chocorose x**


	19. AN: IMPORTANT

**A/N: I do apologise this isn't an update. Especially since this one is completely due an update, but I'm hoping some time this week you'll have the next chapter. it's just Thursday I have a Geography exam so it might not be until Friday. But it could be earlier. Depends on how my revision goes. ANYWAY, a friend on here linked me to this that was posted by another author, not me, and I just wanted to let everyone know what was going on with a few M rated fanfictions. I didn't write this, I've copied and pasted the whole thing otherwise I could be here for some time writing something very very similar.**

**Thank you for your time and I really do hope I'll have an update for you very soon! Damn exams eh? ;)**

The administrators of are as of June 4th going to be taking down Fics that have lemons or have extreme violence. Now I don't know about you but I think thats stupid. There are many wonderful fics that only have one or two lemons in them yet the plot itself is awesome! You can't just take down a 100,000+ word fic just because it has a lemon in a chapter that is only 1000 words long. Now I urge you all to read the petition below, sign it, and repost this to your own fics. Hopefully if we make enough noise everything will return to normal. Thank you.

Greetings to the fine folk that moderate our site.

Myself, along with many, have been writing and posting on your fine site for years now, some of the better examples of up and coming writers out there are now suddenly finding some of the stories we've come to love at risk of being removed without the chance to even rectify our errors.

For some, that means the permanent loss of a story. While I don't have anything that I believe violates your terms of use, there are those out there that are never able to recover a story in its original form, this is something I find to be almost worthy of a legal action, as while we cannot claim ownership of a character, the stories are OURS and simply destroying them is something that is inexcusable.

It's quite easy to simply add an MA rating, additional filters or even a simple requirement for a free membership to read the stories presented here, and would cut down on hateful anonymous reviews and posts at the same time, so I have to question as to why such a thing, in all this time, simply wasn't added.

If you're worried about falsification of a registration then have an appropriate disclaimer and then there can be no dispute, you took your steps and the PARENTS didn't monitor their children, if that is even your concern. If it is more of a personal view or desire then please at least let people know and give them a chance to remove a story that you and yours find offensive, most people on the site are actually rather cordial when it comes to such requests.

While I cannot say for sure if this letter will even reach those that may be willing to listen, of if it's more akin to a wide spectrum purge in preparation for something bigger, please understand that you are going to be loosing a LARGE number of your writers, and thus your income from a lack of readers if there is not some level of action taken to help with this situation.

For those that may agree with this, please feel free to sign on and send this to the support server, maybe we can get some movement on this.

COPY AND PASTE TO YOUR OWN FANFIC!


	20. Chapter 15

**A/N: I apologise for not updating anywhere near when I said I would! But my most recent exam leant to me moping :P **

**Anyway, here's the next chapter!**

**Disclaimer: Don't own VA **

Eventually the computer beeped. It was the next assignment. I read through it, it was some rich guy called James Robinson, didn't know who he was but he had inherited his money. The Captain had got me a job in his favourite restaurant which was always a little bit more boring than the rest of them. But it would be fine. The things I'd need would be in the hotel. I sighed; it was in Alaska, so that meant another flight. Belikov didn't read it, he waited for me first.

"Is it solo or not?" He asked quietly.

"Um..." I quickly skimmed the rest of it so I could get that far, "no, he wants Davis to come as well so he can mix up the cream, but..." I turned to him, "You're not coming. He chose Zeklos to come and get rid of his guards. I don't know why he didn't choose you but...there isn't much I can do."

"All right, do you want me to tell Zeklos and Davis while you get ready?" he was hiding his reaction, unsurprisingly, but I understood.

"If you don't mind." I said quietly. He nodded and left. I walked to the wardrobe.

I checked what sort of uniform the waitresses were supposed to wear and got something similar out of the wardrobe via the technology. I didn't like wearing what they gave me, it was harder to hide weapons. But the stuff in the wardrobe was always designed for that sort of thing. A white blouse, black cardigan that had straps not sleeves, black skirt, tights and heels, when I say heels, I _mean_ heels. I packed them, along with a dress. I also packed boots, makeup and a jacket.

I walked to the weapons storage room winding through the stark, bare corridors. The storage room was huge, wall to wall shelves filled with all the different weapons we could ever need. Even now, there were still various things I'd never used and probably never would use. There was never very much I took. James, supposedly, was very good, but whenever I was alone with him I wouldn't have the weapons on me. I'd be left with only my bare hands.

Jesse and Davis were ready at least twenty minutes before me. They were outside, waiting. Jesse gave me one of his custom arrogant smiles. I was sure he didn't even know he did it. I returned it with a nod and got in the car. I got Jesse to drive there was no point in getting me to do it in case someone died on the way there. Two hours before we were due to land I got Davis to help me with the cream. He was the physician of the team and I honestly didn't want Jesse to have his hands on me.

There was a dark, old, awful car waiting for us and someone in a suit there. He was playing a similar role to what Simon had been doing in the last assignment. His name was John. Most people I met on assignments didn't want their full names known. Plus, the majority of their names weren't their birth names anyway. Pretty much everyone used aliases or something similar.

When we reached the restaurant John introduced me to the manager, he was a stern looking man, who definitely didn't want any funny business. He was short and stout, but of course he could still look down on me. He gave me the rules. There were a _lot _of rules. I couldn't do this. I couldn't do that. It went on forever. So of course I didn't read them.

I was to start the job in an hour. That was enough time to stop at the hotel, pick up the card I had to give to James and the phone that would be reached by the number on that card. Jesse and Davis had rooms next to me.

The card and phone were on the table. It was a small room. It was a small hotel too. The Captain had certainly spared no expense on it. But it wasn't the worse place I'd ever stayed in. If it didn't involve me being tortured I was normally pretty happy.

I put the phone in my pocket and studied the card. My name was Angela, I didn't like it. I was never fond of the names they gave me and I didn't like anything about the particular assignment. I knew it was because Belikov wasn't there. I knew it was childish. But I couldn't help it.

I put the card in my bra; it was the obvious place to put it for this sort of thing. I put some makeup on and brushed my hair. It all looked all right. I couldn't see anything wrong with it.

John had been waiting for me in the hall. He was tall but not imposing. A journey in a car alone with him wasn't unbearable.

As soon as I was inside, the manager had his eyes on me. He didn't take those eyes off me for at least an hour. But by the time James had come in, he'd stopped looking so much. The Captain with his numerous contacts had made it so wherever James was going to sit would be a table that I was serving. I never knew how they did that sort of thing. But it always worked.

I took his drinks order; he was with a business partner. At first he didn't look at me, but then; then he was looking. I walked over to the bar and got their drinks and put it on a tray. Then I took it to their table.

The business partner never looked at me twice. But that wasn't a problem. James on the other hand made it too easy. It was almost...boring how easy it was.

"How long have you worked here?" James asked, "I haven't seen you before."

"First day; night job doesn't pay _all_ the bills." I put his drink in front of him and gave the other guy his.

James studied me. His washed out eyes looked me up and down then lingered on my face.

"You still do the night job?"

"Yes," then I continued impatiently "now, are you ready to order your food?" I picked up my pad and paper.

"What is the night job?" he was more interested in me than eating. It was a little too much.

"If you're _that_ interested here." I reached into my bra and took out the card, I gave it to him.

His eyes flicked over the card before he spoke.

"I'll have the mushroom risotto." he was still looking at the card. I wrote it down.

I glanced at the guy with him.

"Sweet chilli steak." he didn't look up at me. He probably didn't even know I'd turned to him. I wrote that down as well then went o the kitchens and put the order up.

I cleared up another table. It was a little bit difficult to wind past the tables in the dim lighting. Several times I was close to crashing into someone or something. When I walked past James' table he called me over.

"Angela, you booked tonight?" he asked, my name was on the card.

"No, I was planning on sleeping." I said juggling with the plates.

"Well, how much is it for one night?" his eyes met mine.

"Thousand dollars." I knew I had to be slightly tricky, but he had the money.

"Can you knock it down to six hundred?" he crossed his arms over his chest.

"Tell you what, eight hundred and ten, for two nights." I said it in his ear.

"Fair enough, but you get the money afterwards." There was a gleam in his eyes.

"Of course." I walked away. That had been too easy. I hated it when it was that easy.

I walked into the kitchens, ignoring the world around me, and put the plates on the side. Then I picked up a set of plates for another table. I left and walked into the main part of the restaurant. I gave the table their plates. They asked for some more drinks. Which I got. I hated this sort of thing. I didn't get how anyone could do it for a prolonged length of time. James' food was ready and so was the other guy's. I took it to their table. James wrote something down on a piece of paper.

"Be at this address at eight." He gave it to me.

I checked the time, it was already seven; neither one of us would have time to get there. I put the piece of paper back where I'd kept the card.

"Are you sure? That's a little quick."

"True, nine thirty then, but, don't be late." He said before drinking some of his beer.

"I'm _never_ late." I walked back to the kitchens, needing to get away from him. The manager was in there, he didn't look too pleased, in fact, he was yelling at a chef. The manager thought the chef had put a bit too much salt in a soup, a soup that the customer hadn't even complained about. I rolled my eyes. I gave it two minutes before intervening. I didn't stand for that kind of thing. If someone hadn't tried to blow up the world, I didn't see there was any point in them getting the kind of battering the girl was receiving.

"Excuse me." I walked up to him, he spun round, I swear his face was purple.

"Yes?" He raised his eyebrows.

"The customer hasn't complained. A tiny bit of salt won't kill anyone. The chef can't do anything if you're yelling. Leave her alone." I said evenly.

"When I want your opinion, I'll ask for it." He turned round.

"I never said you _wanted_ my _opinion. _But you needed to hear it. No wonder this place is a shambles." I spun, picked up some plates and walked back into the restaurant.

After I'd put the plates down I went to see Jesse, I wasn't ready to face the manager again and he had a table.

"How's it going?" He asked quietly.

"I got him, tonight half nine. But, I think the manager may fire me in a minute." I said softly.

"Why?" He looked up at me.

"Oh the usual. Do you want anything else?" I added the last bit as a waiter walked past.

"No, I'm good." he sighed, "We can't afford any trouble Hathaway. Just be careful."

"Is everything all right?" I asked as I walked past James' table. I'd learnt that was the kind of thing I was supposed to do.

"Yes, thank you." James smiled, "The manager just asked us how we thought you were doing; what did you do?"

"I'm sure part of it's the length of this skirt." I said vaguely.

"Well I can see the problem" he cocked his head to get a better look at it, "But there's nothing wrong."

I smiled and walked into the kitchens. He glared at me, but, surprisingly, didn't say anything to me. I assumed James had given me a glowing report. Plus I was sure there was some sort of threat put in when he was forced to hire me for a night.

I picked up another set of plates, it was so repetitive. I put the plates on the table they were for before walking back to James' table. They had finished. I picked up their plates.

"Do you want a dessert menu?" I asked, sighing. I was really getting bored.

"No. Could we just pay?"

"Yep." I walked over to the computer and added up everything before printing it out. I walked back to the table and gave it to James. He scanned it before giving it to the other guy who then paid for it in dollars, not by card. There was also a tip, and I mean a tip. Twenty dollars, which was surprising, I didn't say anything about it. I picked up the money and walked away.

I pocketed the tip, I wasn't about to give the manager anymore money then he was supposed to get. I checked the time; I had twenty minutes left before the end of my shift.

"Angela, you can go, you've done what you wanted to do, no point in you staying and annoying me anymore." The manager said to me. Obviously he'd been told more than I'd thought.

"Thanks, I have things to do." I left. I got a taxi back as John wouldn't have known to pick me up and I paid the driver with the tip. It was funny how quickly money could go.

By the time I got back it was quarter past eight. It would take me about an hour to get to where James was leaving me only fifteen minutes to get ready. It was hardly enough. I changed and did my makeup all in a rush. So of course it wasn't perfect. But it was enough.

I left the hotel room with my coat but nothing else. I again got a taxi, but this time to his place. . It was a set of flats. A set of expensive flats. There were two bodyguards outside his room. Before approaching the door and getting in earshot of the two men I phoned Jesse and gave him the address.

Then I walked up to the bodyguards. They didn't look convinced when I told them who I was but they rarely did. They were always sceptical. They brought James outside to check if I was the right person. He looked at me for a while. My stomach twisted when I saw him. Sometimes I could tell and I knew, instantly, that he was all business. I didn't stand a chance.

**A/N: Lol could anyone else tell that I obviously have no experience with prostitutes?**

**ANYWAY...yeah um, please review!**

**Chocorose x**


	21. Chapter 16

**A/N: So I have a confession to make...**

**I am so sorry for not posting this sooner, I intended to update this a very long time ago. But, the world decided that that was an impossibility as I had a bit of a personal problem appear that was completely unexpected and out of my control. It was to do with health so there wasn't really much that could be done.**

**Then, lastly, I need a favour from my lovely readers. I was reading a fanfic on here a while back, I'd saved it on my internet favourites list and I managed to accidentally delete it...and I cannot remember the title or author and I can't find it in my searches. So if anyone knows of a vampire academy fanfiction where Rose is turned Strigoi in blood promise and the ring kind of keeps her normal, I think they also tested it on Dimitri or something. There may have been lemons in it...I'm not sure, but if I liked it then it can't have been anything awful. If you know of anything like that please link me! I desperately want to find it...**

**Then lastly, how would people feel about something set with the V.A. characters in a completely different style of world? Where Rose is completely under Dimitri's control, the one time she gets out she meets Adrian Ivashkov, the leader of their 'rebellion'? But Dimitri gets her back...life turns difficult. Lol I don't know, just let me know if you think it sounds interesting and I might post it once I've completely finished Teacher's Pet which is one of my other fanfictions :)**

**Ok, enough of me, I'm going on for too long!**

**Disclaimer: I don't own VA**

"Let me see first." James gestured to my coat.

I sighed. But I undid my coat and spread it apart, I didn't risk taking it off as anyone could walk past.

James raised his eyebrows; that happened every time I did that, it must have been a good thing. If they didn't then it was time to worry.

"All right then." He let me in.

I draped my coat over a chair and glanced around the room. It was different to what Robert had had, this one was completely modern, black walls, huge windows, a funny shaped bed, and random gadgets scattered around the room. James pulled his shirt off and sat on the bed.

"So, how do you normally do this?" He asked. I crossed the room to stand in front of him.

"Well, that depends on the guy, by how much I think they can handle and what they want." As I spoke I walked round and sat behind him on the bed.

**(A/N: Okay, I felt far too uncomfortable of trying to write this, well no, I could write it, I did write it, but there is not a single part of me that can bring myself to post it. So, I'll just give you a low down of what happens: A load of foreplay, blah blah blah, she kind of likes it because he's experienced so she feels guilty. He's a cocky piece of work and decided that since they had two nights, the first was for him to take charge and the second was for her. Then, they end up having sex, hence me not managing to write it... I do apologise, I'm sure many of you would want to read it, but I'm uncomfortable writing lemons and I'm ninety percent sure it would just be painful for all of you to read as it would be rigid with no sense of emotion/anything flowing together at all.)**

There was a knock on the door.

"Sorry sir, but we have a bit of an issue." One of his bodyguards called through the door.

I rolled off of him, relieved for the interruption. But I couldn't help but wonder where on earth Jesse was. I'd needed him here at least twenty minutes ago.

"Go, I'll still be here." I smiled.

He stood and pulled on his trousers before opening the door.

"Who is it?" James asked kicking something.

I walked over to find out what was going on, I stayed as quiet as possible, I didn't want to alarm anyone. Luckily, and thankfully, my dress had stayed on the whole time. Which was very unusual.

"I don't know, I've never seen him before." One of them said.

I peered over James' shoulder standing on my tiptoes. It was a difficult thing to do considering the massive height difference.

It was Jesse, dead, on the floor. A noise escaped my lips, I couldn't control it. I couldn't lose another member of the team. Even if I didn't like him.

James heard me gasp and turned round. He shut the door swiftly and tilted my face up to his.

"Did you know him?" he asked quietly, his eyes boring into mine.

"No," I quickly shook my head, "It's just...I...in my line of work you don't really get bodies."

"Well, _dead_ ones anyway." he smiled cockily and then it faltered, "Maybe you should go, but, same time, same place tomorrow, all right?"

"Sure." I stepped away and put on my coat. I left before he could say another word. I _had _to get out of there.

As soon as I was out of earshot and view of the bodyguards I rung Belikov. I wasn't sure what time it was where he was but I had to talk to him. He answered sounding exhausted, I must have caught him in the middle of the night.

"Belikov, I need you to get the outfit I wore last time and for you to come here. Zeklos has got himself killed. Can you do this now? You'll need instructions."

"Of course. Give me a minute to get there." there was a pause, a long one as he presumably got dressed and got to my room, "All right, I'm at the wardrobe."

"Ok, open it and on the right hand side there's a panel. Type the code in you use to get into the weapons storage room as if you've forgotten your card." I gave him the orders as I walked. Davis was parked outside in a van. I got in.

"I've done it." Belikov said, he was keeping his voice fairly quiet, muted.

"On the table that's now come up type in used. Then type in normal assignment." I said calmly.

"Done."

"Now...actually, just pick one of them, I don't really mind. Once you've done that, ring the Captain, tell him you need a plane to get here, explain that Zeklos is dead and I've asked for you, all right?"

"Ok, I'll be there as soon as I can." He hung up.

"What happened?" Davis asked, he'd overheard.

"The bodyguards were better than expected. There were only two. I don't know what happened I was inside for all of it." I said quietly.

He nodded and started to drive. Neither one of us had anything to say.

Eventually we got back to the hotel. I did everything as quickly as possible. Rigidly. I just needed to sleep, maybe in the morning I'd feel better. But at the time I couldn't afford to let my emotions take over.

Early in the morning, Belikov knocked on the door. I'd pulled him inside and slammed my lips onto his before either one of us could say anything. The need to have someone there, someone caring was controlling my actions.

"Easy," he murmured gently pushing me back, his accent coating his words, "Now, what happened?"

"I don't know. The bodyguards dealt with it all while I was inside with James. Zeklos was there, dead before James had even opened the door.."

"No, that wasn't what I meant," he brushed his fingers down my jaw in a way that forced me to look up at his handsome face, "What happened when you were with James? There's something wrong."

"Zeklos was late." I shrugged and looked away from his eyes turning my attention to the cream coloured wall beside him, "When people are late things get...bad."

Belikov wrapped his arms around me, whether it was to comfort me or just to comfort him I wasn't sure. It didn't matter. I was sure it did both. I buried my head in his chest, calming myself down with his musky scent.

"The Captain's putting someone knew on his team. Surname's Marley, rank lieutenant. He's a got a good, clean report. I've left Ivashkov in charge, he'll introduce him to everyone else before we get back." Belikov said quietly when some time had passed.

"Good."

"Now, Rose, do you mind if I sleep? I don't want to stay jet-lagged when I have to come in and get you." he murmured pushing me backwards and brushing my hair out of my face.

"Sure, whatever" my voice was nonchalant, being in his arms just completely calmed me down.

He smiled and kissed me, his lips gentle.

"If you want, you could always sleep too." he suggested sliding his lips softly down my collarbone, "Only to sleep though Rose. You seem just as tired as I am."

I laughed, "That I am Belikov. That I am."

A few hours later, I found myself at James' door. And to be honest, I was terrified.

**A/N: So I don't know how this was...I think it was okay?**

**Word of warning, I'm going on holiday on Sunday for two weeks, so unless I manage to sneak another update in before I leave this will be last update until I get back. Sorry guys! But I won't have internet access or access to my files at all.**

**Please review!**

**Chocorose x**


	22. Chapter 17

**A/N: firstly, thank you to everyone for putting up with the uh...rather large gap between my updates lol. But I'm back from holiday now and will DEFINITELY be updating this every other week.**

**Then I have a few things to say to my reviewers as I'm too lazy to PM and not all of you have accounts so whatever:**

**THANK YOU to all of youuuuuuuuuuuu. See why that didn't need PM'ing? I know that's not a word...**

**Also, I found the fanfic I was looking for due to the aid of a lovely Cheryl Cole song that sort of mentioned the title in the lyrics...how odd eh? And lucky considering I only have that one song by her...**

**Then an individual thing to one of my reviewers. I actually would have private messaged this but I couldn't due to them not having an account, sorry for having this taking up space in my chapter but I felt like it needed to be said.**

**To 'Guest', firstly of course a massive thank you for your review on the last chapter and I believe the chapter before that. It means a lot that you'd review even without an account. I'm pleased you were enjoying the story. But the intent was not to make Rose turn into a prostitute. Due to her past, and the drastic difference behind her character in this and the books what happened with James, and why it happened is a little...hmm I don't know, twisted? Also, due to her past, she's not likely to be acting very affected by what's happened, especially as it has happened before. Just because she isn't showing how much it has hit her, it doesn't mean it hasn't :) However, thank you again for the comments, much appreciated and I hope that explains it a little!**

**Anyway, on with the chapter!**

**Disclaimer: Still don't own V.A!**

This time I was let in with no hesitation. As expected.

"Right on time."

"I told you, I'm never late." I took my coat off.

"Hmm, that you did." He circled me; I made an effort to not pull a face. What was he? An animal? Ugh

"Did you find out who it was?" There was a slight risk Jesse had decided to keep something on him, like a badge. Honestly, with the mood I was in, if Jesse had been alive I'd have killed him myself. Insensitive I know

"No, he didn't have any ID on him. We're keeping it quiet. Don't want the police involved." he brushed his lips against my neck.

He wasn't being very careful. Blatantly mentioning that whatever he did was against the law with a total stranger was certainly a risky thing to do. For all he knew I was an informant. And technically, I was close to that.

I couldn't help but wonder exactly what he'd been doing. I always wondered. The captain never quite told me enough to satisfy my curiosity.

I nodded slowly, "The Police only cause trouble."

He smiled, "My kind of girl." He leaned in to kiss me.

My body tensed. There was not a single part of me that wanted him to touch me again.

Apparently the world was on my side that evening as the door flew open before his lips could touch mine. It was Belikov. Early. And I had absolutely no qualms in thinking of him as my hero. No matter how clichéd that was.

"Well, this is certainly interesting." James leant back on his heels. From his obvious stance it was easy to tell he was about to make a run for it.

So I shifted my position, angling it just right. I kicked out, getting him square on the nose so he stumbled backwards. I encouraged that backwards momentum by giving him a surprisingly gentle nudge onto the chair behind him.

Belikov threw me something to tie him with, rope. Why on earth was Belikov bringing rope? He might have realised we had to get James to _agree _to coming with us. He had to come quietly. We were in a building, with a lot of people. We couldn't go down the stairs carrying a sack now could we?

"Now, James," I spoke slowly, not wanting to make a mistake in my speech right then, "I'm not going to play games with you, not right now at least. We need to get you out of here. You can come easily, quietly, and it will work in your favour, or, you can kick up a fuss and end up with a lot more wounds than is necessary. I don't know which you'd prefer. Frankly I don't care. But, I'm sure a guy like you would have some sort of preference."

"What happens once I've come with you?" he was eyeing Belikov carefully, the expression enough to make _me _uncomfortable when it wasn't even on me.

"Why would I know? I'm just the messenger." I shrugged.

He nodded, the movement even, almost rhythmical, "You're not giving me a choice are you?"

"Not really."

He nodded again, indicating that he'd come quietly so, I untied him. Leaving Belikov to do the rest while I sorted myself out. I needed to get my jacket and get some sort of alcohol in my system.

"Did you even bring Davis with you" I asked looking round for him.

"Yes, but, he left." Belikov smiled, shoving James forward, "You didn't really think I'd disobey orders did you?"

"Well..." I began.

He chuckled, "Maybe you shouldn't answer that." he picked up the pace a little.

"You _were _early Belikov. Technically you did...adjust the orders slightly."

"Ten minutes is a long time. I didn't want to wait." he shot me another smile.

"You didn't want to wait in case something happened or you just didn't want to wait to see _me_?" I teased.

"Perhaps just a little bit of both." his smile grew.

James watched our conversation with interest; far too much interest for my liking.

"You _do_ know she slept with me don't you?" James asked Belikov.

He winced when I kicked his shin, petty I know.

Belikov glanced briefly in my direction before answering, "I'd worked it out. I do know what her job is."

Once we were back at the hotel, James was tied, and I was packing, my phone rang.

"Hello?" I answered, not even bothering to check the number.

"Hathaway, are you at the hotel?" The Captain asked.

"Yes."

"With James?" he was quick, snappy, worse than normal.

"Yes. He's tied up right now."

"Once you're back, I want you to kill him. No hanging around. I have a new assignment and it's urgent," he said.

"Why, what is it?" he had _never_ almost pulled me out of an assignment for another. There was a pause.

"Um..." this was something he never did as well, he never hesitated, he was never unsure as to what to say, "It's for you and Belikov. Is he near?"

"Yes."

"Then get away from him." an order.

So I got away from Belikov, moving to the other end of the room.

"It's a rescue mission, for two civilians, from Kierov. The civilians are Belikov's parents. They were on a diplomatic trip, to Scotland. They're being kept in Edinburgh." he recounted, like reading off something.

"All right, do you want to use my place in Edinburgh?" It was cheaper than putting us up anywhere, plus it had most things we needed, if need be, it could become a secondary emergency base.

"Yes. You need to warn him first, I'm not doing it myself. Get to the runway as soon as possible, I'll send John." The Captain hung up.

"Belikov pack up, and if you don't mind pack up my stuff but, leave out a set of clothes. I have to change. We're leaving now." I didn't offer him any more answers than that. I needed to wait.

I told Davis to get ready. Telling him no more than I'd told Belikov.

"So..." Belikov started conversationally, "Why the rush?"

"I'll tell you on the plane, not now." I whispered as I walked past him.

I did tell him on the plane. I took him into the cabin, alone. James was sat outside, with Davis on guard.

"It's bad isn't it?" Belikov murmured his eyes looking deeply into mine.

"Oh yeah," my voice was shaky, there was no way to break it to him without...well, without hurting him, "We're going back, in a hurry to complete a rescue mission. Dimitri..." I used his first name, hoping, although knowing it wouldn't, that it would lessen the blow a little, "Dimitri your parents have been kidnapped by Kierov."

**A/N: We're getting kind of near the end... *cries* lol, no, there's going to be a sequel, no need to get upset ;)**

**Thank you to mapplegate for being a wonderful beta :)**

**Please reviewwwwwwwwwwwww!**

**Chocorose x**


	23. Chapter 18

**A/N: SORRY THIS IS SO LATE!**

**Lol, so basically, I came down with tonsillitis over the bank holiday when I intended to post this so...I couldn't write then.**

**And then life came crazy getting ready to get back to school...**

**Then we went BACK to school and I haven't had a breather since...**

**And LASTLY, I've suffered with crazy writer's block on this chapter...so yeah, it's been a while!**

**Also, for this chapter I've skipped getting it beta read because it's so late, so I apologise for all of the, most likely many mistakes that are all my fault :P**

**Then, the last thing is, this chapter is a complete filler, so I think you may get slightly bored and find it's short...so I'm sorry about that too!**

**Thank you for sticking with me :)**

**Anyway, here's the next chapter!**

**Disclaimer: Don't own VA**

We stayed in silence for a good ten minutes while Belikov took it in.

"How come he's sending me? I'm not supposed to..." he stopped, finding getting the words out was difficult.

"Kierov's refusing to talk to anyone but us." I squeezed his hand.

"Would you give me a minute?" he asked, his voice pained.

"Of course."

* * *

><p>I gave Belikov some space for the rest of the day. I spent the flight outside, packed my stuff alone and took care of Robert without bothering him. But he knocked on my door just before I went to bed.<p>

"Can I come in?" he asked anxiously.

I nodded, "Sure."

At first I waited. He paced the floor, sat, then stood and paced again. But, I wasn't patient enough for that.

"Spit it out then Belikov, I do _actually_ require sleep." I snapped sitting down.

He smiled, but it didn't reach his eyes and it vanished the moment he started talking, "Rose, Kierov will want to make a deal, in return for my parents. I just want to know, will we exchange _anything _for them?"

I sighed. I spent most of my life lying. It was the only way to get by in this job. Plus it had turned into a nasty habit. But did I lie to Belikov then? To protect him. Or should I just tell him straight?

"No. The EDA doesn't trade with terrorists. Particularly him. We're to extract them ourselves I'd imagine." I said as calmly as I could manage, "Or, just find out the information and the EDA will send in a team who specialise with this kind of thing. We don't strike deals. We _never _strike deals."

* * *

><p>I easily ignored the ridiculous size of the building, the massive drive way and the huge doors. Although Belikov found that difficult. Of course he did. He had no idea that the life I'd left to become a part of the EDA had been so...wealthy.<p>

I pushed open the door and pulled Belikov in me.

"Yes, my parents had money, stop gawking." I snapped taking him swiftly up the staircase and to his room so he could unpack.

"I don't think I've ever stayed somewhere like this before." he muttered as I showed him his large, slightly ornately decorated room.

"I'd wonder if you had. Now...unpack or whatever you want to do. I'll investigate dinner." I slammed the door before any questions could be asked, I didn't want to deal with that just then.

The money had, apparently, mainly come from inheritance. My mother, Janine, had a normal background but had married into it with Nathan, my father. But, he'd had an on off relationship with me and my brother, Jack. Needless to say all three of them were dead now. Leaving me with empty houses, full bank accounts, with no idea as to what I should do with myself.

The Captain had kept me busy with assignments the moment I'd healed from the torture. But mentally, well, I was ninety nine percent sure I'd never recovered.

As I walked down the stairs my phone gave that annoying, shrill ring that showed the captain was calling.

"Sir." I answered.

"Hathaway, apparently Kierov will give you a time and place where you can meet either today or tomorrow. Don't give him what he wants, you know the drill. I want regular updates once you get started. I'll be needing you to break them out as there's absolutely no point in sending someone else. Just keep Belikov in the dark. I trust I don't need to remind you that this is your last chance, if you screw up...well, there will be consequences." The Captain hung up.

I took a few deep breaths, every time that man called I always ended up irritated.

Although the Captain needed me in the EDA, if I screwed up enough then I would be too much of a liability. I strode along a dangerous and extremely thin line. I knew soon I was going to fall, but I wasn't entirely sure which way.

**A/N: Sorry it was so so so so so so so short! And delayed, and all of that, hopefully the next chappie'll be better!**

**Please review!**

**Chocorose x**


	24. Chapter 19 AND an apology

**A/N: All righty, so the first thing is a massive boring apology combined with an explanation. If you've read the most recent chapter of Teachers Pet you don't need to read this, but do have a quick look where I talk specifically about this fanfic. If you haven't, it would be really much appreciated if you did because I think it's important that you all know what's been going on. **

**Basically, I just found myself with absolutely no time on my hands and getting the ideas and time to write, any fanfictions seemed to go completely out the window. **

**Yup, that's the sort of excuse I've been using. **

**But honestly? With ALL of my fanfictions, I just have not had the motivation. I don't really think it's got anything to do with the amount of feedback I've been getting etc etc, I've just sort of lost interest. It's not just fanfiction, I've lost interest in an awful lot of things. It's not something I can explain, but I'm ninety percent sure that it's most likely to do with me being a teenager.**

**Now, onto this fanfic. As a few readers may know, I had this written before with different characters. But there's a lot more to it than just...swapping some names round. I try to make the characters fit better with who you know them as, but I also have to make what I had written presentable. I don't know if anyone else here writes aside fanfiction, but when I'm writing with no intent to post it to the world, it doesn't always make sense and I get lazy. So writing this is slightly...difficult, because I have my train of thought down, but it doesn't always make sense. Sometimes I have to go five chapters on and see what on earth I was talking about. So, this is one that I seem to have a lot of writers block with, just because going back over what I've written can make me feel slightly stale. It doesn't take as long as some of my other fanfics, but if I have writers block, it'll be this one, or Dying to Serve.**

**So I'm certainly not giving up on my fanfictions, particularly this one, but I'm afraid the gaps are getting rather big between updates, whether it's because I've been putting in piles of work for my GCSE's or just because of my mindset, I don't really know. **

**I do appreciate I'm steadily losing readers and all of that, and I know gaps will irritate those readers who love this enough to keep reading. But, I write for myself. No offence intended to anyone but I do it for me, not for everyone who reads. If the writing stops doing anything for me then I know it's time for a break. **

**I am very sorry for the wait, the very long wait, but finally, here's the next chapter. I have no idea how it'll be as sometimes after a gap it takes me a few chapters to get back into it, but hopefully it's good enough for you to enjoy. Thank you so much to anyone who's putting up with me!**

**Disclaimer: I don't own V.A.!**

**RPOV**

"So, what did the Captain say?" Belikov asked leaning back keeping his tone relaxed.

"He doesn't know anymore about your parents if that's what you're asking."

"Well I'm sure if he knew any more you'd tell me." he said scathingly, "But what I was actually getting at, was what did he say specifically to _you?"_

"That if I screw up there will be 'consequences' or whatever. As if I didn't already know that."

He rolled his eyes, "Rose, if you knew that, then why on earth are you so irritated?"

"Because he doesn't get it. They all need me. When it comes to Kierov, well, you and me are the only ones who have ever seen his face. And I know him. Every little habit, every tactic, to an extent I'm the only one who can stop him. But all they look at is his pride. He got me this job in the first place. He's the one who's kept me here."

He sighed, "But, what if you _are_ a liability? You rarely follow orders, you're rash and impulsive and when was the last time you _really _acknowledged the Captain was your superior officer?" He arched an eyebrow.

"For goodness sake Belikov, what about what you do? Now, I have to go over the files so, I'll see you later."

My office was the opposite end of the building and for some obscure reason it required a code, there was the biggest steel door you'd ever seen and if I remembered rightly, there was also a very advanced alarm system. By the time I'd even got inside it had taken me at least twenty minutes. That had all been my father's precautions.

I went straight to the computer and switched it on. There was nothing else in there that ever interested me. The details had been sent to me on e-mail so like any normal agent I read through it. There wasn't much. Just the time and place of their disappearance, every scrap of information there was. But it still wasn't enough to even have a clue as to where they were or what Kierov really wanted.

I printed everything off for Belikov, I knew he would want to see everything. Just telling him it wouldn't be enough.

That irritating beeping noise sounded in my ear. A text. From an unknown number. I knew that always meant something bad. It was nearly always someone I did not want to talk to. This contained a video. I took a few seconds to prepare myself and then hit play. Of course it was of Belikov's parents. They were tied up and looked, well, terrible. It was easy to tell they hadn't been tortured though.

I plugged my phone into the computer and downloaded the video onto the hard drive so I could cross reference the surrounding indoor 'scenery' with the database to try and find out where on earth they were. Several factories all over the damn planet came up. So I narrowed it down to the UK, then Scotland, then Edinburgh. It was a long shot but I figured it would be stupid for Kierov to take them out the country, if he was in fact intending on us picking them up once he'd got whatever was his demands. It narrowed it down to two. But I didn't know which and I didn't even know for sure if it was either. But it was a start.

I picked up the papers I'd printed off earlier and took my phone with me. But for now, I wasn't going to tell Belikov exactly what I'd found out.

Several factories came up in Scotland. I narrowed it down to Edinburgh. I had two places. But I still couldn't know if it was even one of them.

"For God's sake Belikov it's past twelve." I snapped walking into the kitchen and putting the papers beside him, "Go get ready for bed. Seriously. You can look over this in the morning. Rest's the best thing you can do right now."

"All right." he didn't sound in the slightest bit convinced, but it was enough for me at that precise moment. He may not have been tired, but I was certainly exhausted. I didn't do well without my sleep.

Now, I was the type of girl who liked a good proper English cup of tea, decaf of course, before bed. That was going to be my excuse anyway. So once I was all washed, changed, all that I headed back down the stairs. And sure enough, Belikov had seen the slight…gap in my orders.

"Did you analyse everything I said to see the loophole?" I asked boiling the kettle.

"No. I just know you wouldn't make me do that." he shrugged taking a seat at the table.

"Just don't worry yourself all night. I know it's hard but…worrying about it won't do anyone any good." I murmured squeezing his shoulders and pressing a kiss to the top of his head.

"You sound like my mother." he muttered.

I laughed, I probably did sound like that. "Well, I probably _am _supposed to look after you. I'd imagine it's in my job description that I promptly discarded." I retorted picking up the mug I'd now filled, "Anyway, goodnight Belikov."

"Night Rose." he mumbled, his voice very far away.

* * *

><p>In the morning, I discovered that Belikov hadn't at least stayed up <em>all<em> night because he was lying sound asleep next to me. I tried to be as quiet as I could; it was one of those times where I really didn't want to wake him. But the shower would most likely get him awake. Turned out it did. And that, that was the least of my problems.

He was fully dressed, leaning against the far wall of the room, beside my desk, with his arms folded. His jaw was taught, his eyes just slightly narrowed, but pained too. Something had happened.

I threw my towel on the floor and pulled on the rest of the clothes I'd looked out. I didn't want to argue half dressed.

"What?" eventually I found the words.

He tossed me my phone precariously. I snatched it out the air, "I couldn't help but think there was a whole lot you hadn't told me. I'm not as dense as you might think Rose. So yes, I had a brief look."

"And you saw it." I whispered.

He gave me a sharp nod.

"Did you not think," I said as evenly as I could manage, "That there would be a reason for me to not tell you something? Or, did you forget the rules around here? I could have you fired for that."

"You won't though." he said softly.

"No. I won't. But, I can make life very difficult for you. We can go back to how this was at the start if you like?"

"No, for Christ's sake Rose. I'm sorry I looked through it but…it's hard."

"I'm sorry, what?" I took a few anxious steps forward as every rational part of me tried to contain myself, "You think _this _is hard? Not _knowing _that your parents are going through utter utter shit? I've seen things happen to people I loved, and wished that I hadn't looked. I wish that I hadn't opened my eyes. But to go _looking _for it? What kind of torture are you intending to put yourself through here? This is not the sort of thing people do Belikov. Even I wouldn't try to put myself through that. Even me. I don't know what's happened to you before you got here because I don't ask. But whatever it is, whatever's making you do this, needs to stop. Or you're bloody well off my team. Now I want you to go. I don't care where, just get out of this room."

Of course, as life would have it, the minute he'd left I wanted him back. And the second that happened, my phone went off, with the time of that damned meeting with Kierov to bring back Belikov's parents.

**A/N: So there's not too many chapters left…but there shall be a sequel, please, contain your excitement ;)**

**Also, sorry if the ending's a tad rushed, but I've been kicked off the computer :P**

**Anyway…please review!**

**Chocorose x**


	25. A really annoying AN

**A/N:**

**No one will want to see this I'm sure, but I think most of you know it's due.**

**I've sort of lost my passion for this, all of my fanfictions, so of course this is going on all my fanfictions. So, they're going on the backburner. Very literally.**

**I don't want to give up for my readers, but I also know that I've got interests in other things now. It's actually still writing, but not things that you put **_**on **_**fanfiction. Also I don't enjoy being committed to eventually having to have it made presentable. It might sound silly to you but I suppose since I consider it a hobby, having it more as something I need to do just puts me off.**

**Basically, if it appears no one's interested it's highly likely it won't get updated. Also, even if I do update it'll probably take uh...a while. I'm honestly very sorry but I figured I should just tell you all straight and leave it at that.**

**It would be highly unfair for me to leave all of my fanfictions blank with no explanation, hopefully after Christmas I'll get interested again, but then it's exam territory so...**

**Maybe by September things'll be more sorted and we can get back to normal but right now, I know I need to stop.**

**So overall: If there's an update, there's an update :P**

**Chocorose x**


	26. Chapter 20

**A/N: So here's the next chapter guys. I'm going to upload one fanfic a week to keep it manageable.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own V.A.!**

**RPOV**

For some ridiculous reason I had to go alone. Leaving Belikov behind.

"It'll be fine." I assured him squeezing his arm, "This meeting will be easy. It's just...right now it will just be discussing details. Comparing what he wants, with what I want. Then he'll send me back to you with a cryptic message that we won't be able to decipher for months." I kissed his cheek, "I'll be fine. And the minute I've shown my face he won't have them hurt. I promise."

I slipped my gun into its holster and decided to _walk_ there. It was a stupid idea. It was much much more than two miles. I needed to think first.

I hadn't genuinely lied to Belikov. But, I had exaggerated the power I had. I held nothing over Kierov. We were...equal. The only reason for that was because my family were already dead. Now, Belikov could pose a threat to the balance I finally had with him.

When I reached the warehouse I paced the perimeter to see the kind of security there was, only to find there was absolutely nothing. No guards, no motion detectors, cameras, nothing. Odd.

Inside wasn't much of a different story apart from the two single guards all in black.

One was tall but slim. Defined. He had quick, sharp looking eyes and was in an entire black suit. The other guy was in the same attire, but he was bigger, muscles almost bulging out of his shirt. It was probably supposed to make him seem daunting, have a shirt a size too small. Although to be honest I thought, it just looked ridiculous.

"Hathaway." the first one nodded at me.

"So what?" I demanded folding my arms across my chest.

"Kierov's keeping it simple." he continued, "All you need, is to give him one thing. A small favour."

"I want to see them first." I interrupted, bored already.

"Then come with me." he walked me to a laptop on a table at the back of warehouse.

It was being streamed. Sure, it looked live, but there was no way to know for certain. No way at all.

"No, I want to _see_ them. That doesn't count."

"I'm afraid that's it." he genuinely sounded disappointed, "It's all he's giving you."

"All right. What does he want?"

I probably wasn't particularly listening, until I realised what he'd said and then...well then I could honestly feel myself begin to panic.

* * *

><p>I don't think I'd ever been quite so angry with Kierov before, which was odd, considering every thing else he'd done to me. But this just took the biscuit. And with everything else, the torture, the killing of my family, I'd still been detached. I still hadn't quite cared.<p>

On the way back, the walk was good. It gave me time to clear my head and think about what on earth I was going to say to the Captain, or Belikov for that matter.

I knew we couldn't afford to give him what he wanted, which meant we'd have to locate Belikov's parents separately, send an entire taskforce in, cause an awful lot of deaths, probably several on our side, and get them out of there. Knowing the EDA, they weren't going to let that happen. If I'd been able to see them, today, there was a chance they'd let me do it. But now, it required a lot more than just going in. We had to find them first. With no leads, nothing. I certainly knew I wouldn't be doing it.

I trudged up the driveway and hesitated at the door, perhaps it would be best to tell the Captain before seeing Belikov. So I did.

"That doesn't sound like him at all." the Captain mused, probably frowning, "Or maybe it does..."

"No I think it's definitely something he'd do." I sighed and leant against the doorway, "What do you want me to tell Belikov?"

"Well..." he paused for a moment, "I'd say nothing, but I know he won't take that kindly. Tell him that they didn't say what they wanted. That they'd be in touch. But, if it gets too difficult, just tell him the truth and tell me what you've done. Then, I'll get over there."

I nodded knowing fine well he couldn't see and he hung up without waiting for a reply. As always.

He was sitting at the kitchen table, a mug of coffee in his hand and several pictures strewn across the wooden table top.

I sat beside him to find that the photos were of his parents and he had out my file, Kierov's file and the Captian's practically useless file. Half of it was blanked out, only a quarter of mine was.

I reached out and squeezed his hand, knowing it wouldn't offer much comfort.

"What happened?" he asked, not taking his eyes off the papers on the table.

"Kierov wasn't there. Your parents weren't either. It was just two guys. They showed me what appeared to be a live stream, could have been recorded, of your parents and told me Kierov would be in touch. That was it."

He arched an eyebrow as his eyes found mine, "It's funny I don't believe that."

I shrugged, "I'd say the same but it's the truth.

"Rose..."

"Belikov, that's all I can give you. Please." I released his hand, "Don't make this difficult."

He nodded, "I'll give you a few hours. But Rose, You know that I _need _the truth."

"I fought for that. But I need to just follow my orders all right? At the moment, I cannot afford to bend any more rules."

With that said, I went out, to the garden, for a walk.

I'd never been one to appreciate the outdoors. I hated it. I hated bugs, mud, dirt, all of that. But, I did actually enjoy just being outside every now and then.

I was a naturally anxious person. Naturally suspicious, naturally angry. Sometimes, when I got for a bit, to a place that was empty of all...people, sometimes that really did a lot for me. But that day, it did absolutely nothing. I was too far gone.

Belikov appeared out of absolutely nowhere and his arms slipped round my waist.

"You've been out here for hours, and you've walked two feet. What's wrong?" he asked softly in my ear.

I hesitated, "You know I can't." I whispered eventually.

"Ok, then don't talk about that. Come inside and get some dinner. I've even cooked." he grinned as he pressed a gentle kiss to my cheek.

"You cooked?" my tone rose, "When it's not your turn? Bribery's not going to work."

He chuckled and pulled me inside, "That's not what's going on. I've just cooked you dinner because _technically _Rose, the term for you, is my girlfriend and that's definitely what you deserve. So shut up, try to thank me for it, and eat it, love."

**A/N: So, apologies for the wait and whatnot. Now, a warning that I'm going to give now, rather than in the next two, or possibly three chapters: when this is done there will be a slight break before the sequel. This will give me time to firstly plan what I want to happen as right now I have no idea past the first two chapters. It will also mean that I will be able to perhaps finish another fanfiction so that I have more time on my hands. I just wanted to put this out now while I remember and while there's room in the A/N's! Haha**

**Please review!**

**Chocorose x**


	27. Chapter 21

**A/N: One before the last chapter! haha**

**RPOV**

"Good morning." Belikov murmured as he watched me wake up.

"What time is it?" I asked, hardly keeping my eyes open.

"Ten. I got you breakfast." he placed a tray on the bed.

"As a bribe?" I smirked at looked down at the tray in front of me. It had a cup of tea and a fruit salad, I knew you weren't supposed to have tea with fruit but he knew I didn't care.

He chuckled, "Perhaps."

The bed dipped as he sat beside me, "Did the Captain order a no?"

"Not quite." I took a sip of the tea to bide some time, "But it's best for me not to do something that he'd rather I didn't do."

"Rose...this is hard." He squeezed my hand.

"Ugh I know!" I exclaimed as I turned away to study the room I knew so well. He'd opened the curtains instead of turning on the lights, not something I ever did. I had clothes strewn across the floor from since I'd arrived. I hadn't even tried to keep it all tidy. But I very rarely did.

"He'll let your parents go at a price that I'm not willing to pay." I murmured turning my attention to the fruit, I really was hungry.

"And what's that?" he asked softly.

"You." I whispered, still refusing to look at him.

"What on earth do you mean?" there was a frown in his voice that I could hear easily, there was no use in him hiding it anyway.

"He wants you to join him Belikov. Be on his side, betray the EDA, betray me. So, I'm going to shower while I need you to try not to do anything stupid." I put the tray to the side and started to head to the bathroom.

"When you say stupid," he said warily, "Could you define it?"

"No. Not today." I knew I was giving him a loophole as idiotic as that was. But, I had to give him the choice.

His eyes turned grateful as he leaned down to kiss me. His fingers knotted in my hair and I wrapped my arms around his neck. His lips slid across my cheek and to my ear.

"Thank you." He whispered.

It was so quiet I could pretend I hadn't heard it. But he knew fine well I had. I closed my eyes.

"I have to, you know that." I said even quieter then he had.

"Yeah, I know." He kissed me again. Tears spilled down my cheeks. I honestly had no control.

"Hey," He wiped the tears off my cheeks, "It's all right, I promise."

I squeezed my eyes shut. He kissed me.

"No it's not. I know you Belikov. You're going to go, you have no choice. I'd do the same." I pulled away and started to head for the door.

He pulled me back into his arms.

"Rose, listen to me, I love you. And I am so sorry. For, prying into things you didn't want to talk about, for trying to get on your nerves from the start and for this. But I haven't decided, so don't panic just yet."

My brows rose slightly in an irritated action, "If you don't go you're either a fool or you want your parents to die. So don't even bother."

I moved swiftly into the bathroom to escape any more conversation. I stayed in the shower until the water ran out and spent as long as I could to get ready afterwards. I wanted to avoid him. Well, I wanted to avoid what he had to say.

For a while it worked. We ate separately, I spent the day in my room and he spent the day in the gym. But at dinner we sat down together.

It was quite possibly one of the most awkward meals I'd had. Neither of us But of course it turned out to be the after dinner affair that I really needed to fear.

He went upstairs while I placed the plates in the dishwasher. It was a loud clumsy machine because it was so old. I wasn't in the house enough to bother with replacing it.

Belikov was in my room. He was standing there with a bag; he intended to leave then and there. His back was facing me while he stood by my table. What I did next I couldn't help. It was how I knew I was going to react. I pulled out my gun and took the safety out. I never didn't have my gun on me, habit.

Belikov stiffened; he knew exactly what I was doing.

"Yeah it's what you think it is." I said slowly, "I don't do goodbyes. Not anymore. So you either go; right now, you stay permanently, or I can shoot you. Right now, I'm not sure I give a damn which one it is. So you pick."

He turned around to just looked at me for a while. My hand wavered. He crossed the room, with his bag in his hand.

"Rose...all right. So you don't do goodbyes and I know fine well I can't ask you anything. But I'm going to anyway. Will you wait?" He looked me in the eye, the pain in his evident.

I opened my mouth to reply, but no words would come out. I just couldn't manage it. Belikov put his bag on the floor and gently pushed my arm down so the gun was at my side.

"Yeah okay." I eventually whispered as I slipped the keys for the EDA issued car into his hand, "You're certainly not taking my car. I need you to hand over your ID and card." I said slowly.

He silently put the card in my hand. Then he gently pressed his lips to mine and slipped his arms around my waist.

"Thank you, for everything." he murmured pulling away. After that he just he picked up his bag and walked out.

He had gone.

**A/N: Ugh...I do apologise, I wanted it to be longer but I kind of ended up hitting the end point earlier than I'd wanted to...sorry! But I hope you liked it anyway.**

**Please review!**

**Chocorose x**


	28. Chapter 22

**A/N: THE LAST CHAPTERRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR! Haha there is a sequel, it'll be up when I've finished another fanfic, probs dying to serve.**

**RPOV**

I had never been so glad to reach the base. I walked straight inside technically ignoring the Captain. But I could tell he didn't really mind. I found my way to my room. I changed into my normal clothes, leather. Once I had it on and had had a few minutes of normality to think. I felt a little better, but that didn't mean much. I left the room and went to find Ivashkov.

My phone rang, I honestly hated the sound of it, but it was the only ringtone that irritated me enough to make me answer it.

"What?" I hissed, already knowing who it was.

"I wanted to check up on you considering you've just lost the man you love." Kierov's voice was calm, cool, as easy as possible.

"For goodness sake, I don't have time for this."

"Why-ever not? It's your boyfriend, you should be interested in what I have to say."

"Fine then, shoot."

"I thought you'd understood that if you were to be close to someone, they'd always be the easiest way to get to you. Rose, my entire operation revolves around you. Besides, Belikov's pretty comfortable without you. It may only have been a day but he genuinely seems to be enjoying the dance lessons I forced on him. I suppose his instructor _is _everything you're not. Soon, you'll want to know _everything _about her."

"_Her_?"

"Of course, what were you expecting? He's a man after all." he said, I could hear the smirk in his voice.

He hung up, without any goodbye, or explanation, or anything at all. Just a beep at the end of the line.

I went to find Adrian, I needed him now.

He let me into his room and poured me a glass of whisky from his limitless stash.

"Do you want to talk about it?" he asked, eyeing me carefully as I took a sip.

"No, but I need to. I couldn't even tell the Captain." I kicked off my boots and curled up on his sofa, holding the whisky in both hands.

"Okay." he leant back in his seat, leaving it open for me just to tell him anything.

I told him everything he wanted to know. The arguments between me and Dimitri, what I was told by Kierov's men, how Dimitri left, my very recent phone call from Kierov. Every single thing that had happened.

"So you're a little heartbroken then?" he summed up, taking my hand in his.

I smiled, "Only a tiny bit."

My phone made that frustrating noise yet again. I checked the number to discover surprisingly it was Belikov. I answered anyway.

"Are you on your own?" He asked.

"No."

"Who's with you?"

"Ivashkov." I didn't have any sort of emotion in my voice, just one word answers. I didn't care.

"What did Kierov want to talk to you about?"

"You don't know?" I smiled.

"He wouldn't tell me."

"How're the dance lessons coming along?" I asked leaning back in the chair. It wasn't a nice question. I knew it wasn't a nice question, but I had to ask it anyway. For a little while he didn't say anything. But eventually he spoke.

"What did he tell you about them?" He eventually said.

"Enough."

"It's not what you think."

"The fact that you immediately went on the defensive means it is. What sort of dancing?"

"Ballroom." He said slowly.

"What's her name?" I asked blinking back the tears.

"Mia."

I didn't know what to say to that, I wasn't sure what I was supposed to say. So I ended the call, much like Kierov had earlier. Maybe we weren't that dissimilar.

"You all right?" Adrian asked softly.

I nodded, "Nothing I can't get over."

We sat in silence for a while, waiting until the clock hit eight and it was time for dinner. Surprisingly we all filed in at the same time. Soon we were joking and laughing. There was a bitter note to each laugh, for everyone. I noticed that Belikov's...betrayal had taken its toll on all of us, even if not all had known him well at all. Marley had gone all out and made a very big chocolate thing for a kind of dessert.

"You know, that might just be the biggest thing I've ever seen." I informed him when he put it on the table.

He grinned. "Possibly. But at least it's all chocolate. It'll probably make you sick."

"Well, that's something new. I haven't felt that in a while"

I ate a bit of the cake. But there was a lot of it and Marley was right. It did make you feel rather sick. I was pretty sure I just drank, and there were times when I was worried I was drinking too much. But I knew I had a pretty high tolerance of alcohol; most of the time. When we had finished off the chocolate thing we still stayed up. Mostly arguing. But it was fun. It was like before Belikov had arrived and messed up how the team worked. I wasn't happy though, I wasn't relaxed, I was on my guard, I was annoyed with everything.

"So, here's what I think." Ivashkov said at one point, dangerously swaying his beer bottle around, "I think that newbies suck, no offence Marley, and that we should just stay the same way we are, completely and utterly insane."

I chuckled, "Ivashkov you're a drunk, not insane. It's a wonder you're allowed on my team."

"Hey!" he complained, "You're more unstable than I am."

I grinned, "Very true Adrian. Very true."

I finished up my bottle and a new one was chucked at me.

"If we're insane and can't do anything about it, when we get old will we be insane?" Adrian asked absentmindedly.

"Well Ivashkov, you're what, thirty? You're already old." one of them said, I couldn't even work out who, I was so past it.

"Well you know what, considering you've got an old man on your team and are being lead by a completely psychotic woman, I think I'd say you're in a lot of trouble yourself. In fact, we're all screwed. So, here's to that; being screwed." He held out his bottle. Everyone clinked their bottles with everyone else's.

A word echoed round the room as we all shouted it and random, different intervals. There wasn't a chance in hell of it being in unison.

"Cheers!"

**A/N: THE END!**

**Haha, a massive thank you to absolutely everyone who's stuck with this story and offered advice, criticism or even just opinions, it was really greatly appreciated. I would thank individuals but I know I'm ridiculous and would definitely forget someone.**

**Oh yeah, and reviewers of the last chapter will get a sneak peak through a pm, weirdly enough it probably won't be of the first chapter, but you'll all live with it ;)**

**I will post an A/N on here to tell you of the sequel.**

**Please review!**

**Thank you again**

**Chocorose x**


	29. SEQUEL

**A/N: The Sequel is up! It's called Shooting through the looking glass and the link will obviously be on my profile. Thank you for your patience and I hope you all give it a shot!**

**Chocorose x**


	30. UPDATE

**So…surprise! This is a blanket A/N for all of my work on here. Depending on where you are reading this, you may be wondering why I haven't updated in such a long time and...well, I don't have a reason that I can give you that would satisfy your curiosity.**

**Actually, that's not entirely true. As some of you may know I have started writing on Wattpad. I have found the experience to be a lot more enjoyable than writing on here. The people who write as guests on my work have often been lovely, but, they also often have not been. Now, it wasn't something I noticed myself feeling down about or anything like that, but I did notice that it gave me a slight…aversion to the site. I feel like the nature of anonymous reviewers is something I as a writer on this site need to address.**

**Firstly, if you want to criticise a person's work, at least have the decency to not do it anonymously. It is disgusting. To directly insult an author or their writing without giving them a way by which to contact you just shows you to be exceptionally childish and ignorant. I hate the ability to write reviews as guests on here because it leaves such an easy way for people to write abuse.**

**Secondly, there is a large difference between constructive criticism and just plain rudeness. Simply typing in a review, with a large string of profanities, insults or anything of the sort is not helpful to anyone. I know my writing is not perfect, I know that it is not to everyone's taste, but just throwing insults my way does not help me improve as a writer. It is also particularly ridiculous to post several reviews under different, made up, names which are clearly by the same person. It's laughable that someone would consider that to be a valuable way to spend their time.**

**I would also like to address comments on my older works. I have received several comments since my slight…abandonment of this site on writing which I posted and created when I was very young. I know now, that it is not the best of my ability. To comment on such old work, with such hefty criticism without attempting to read any of the writers new work, to see if there has been an improvement is again, very insulting to a writer.**

**Because of this, I have decided I will be moderating anonymous reviews. I didn't want to, but I refuse to deal with the childishness and ignorance that I have seen on writing which has been personal to me and in many ways document what I have been through as a person. If you don't see a largely abusive, anonymous review that you have written appear on my work, you know why.**

**And finally, a massive thank you to anyone who's stuck with me. I have had some of the most lovely comments on here, some wonderful pieces of encouragement and have been given so much advice on how to improve. I cannot thank anyone who has ever helped me on here enough. I truly appreciate you. This may seem like a massive moan at my readers and I know that is unfair, but I really felt the need to explain why I simply stopped posting. I couldn't do it anymore with the way that anonymous reviews were going. There is so much in the 'real' world that is more important to me, and I refuse to let people on here, who are choosing to remain so **_**completely **_**anonymous make me feel like shit about myself.**

**Now, to those of you who are reading my current stories (Teacher's Pet and Shooting Through the Looking Glass). I will be posting. It has been such a long time since I have even looked at my work on here that it will be a slow process. I am currently re-reading Teacher's Pet, Assassinating in Blood and Shooting Through the Looking Glass in order to work out where my train of thought was for any of them. There will be updates on both of my ongoing works by September 2014. I am so sorry for the wait, really I am. But I can't force myself to write, and I won't force myself to write. **

**Thank you for reading!**

**Chocorose x**


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